Kiwi Struggles After Economic Data and RBNZ Comments

The New Zealand dollar is lower today, losing ground as the latest economic data disappoints, and with the latest comments from the Governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand. Many expect weakness to be the norm moving forward.

Kiwi is falling almost across the board today, thanks in large part to the latest economic data release. The jobs data shows that the unemployment rate in New Zealand remains at 6.0 per cent — which is higher than the expected dip to 5.9 per cent. On top of that, the labor cost index rose by 0.3 per cent, when expectations were for a gain of 0.5 per cent.
Since the economy isn’t recovering as one would like, the kiwi is falling a bit. Additionally, the latest comments from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand Governor Graeme Wheeler aren’t helping. Wheeler said that the New Zealand dollar is overvalued, and the currency’s valuation will be used to determine the course of future rate hikes. The implication is that rate hikes will be slow in coming in order to keep the kiwi lower in an attempt to bring it line.
At 13:20 GMT NZD/JPY is down to 88.3090 from the open at 88.8850. AUD/NZD is up to 1.0748 from the open at 1.0699. NZD/USD is down to 0.8678 from the open at 0.8740.

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