The New Zealand dollar climbed at the start of the current trading session following the release of surprisingly good employment data at the end of the previous session. But the currency has trimmed its gains against some rivals and lost them against others by now.
The number of employed people in New Zealand increased by 0.5% in the December quarter from the previous three months. While the rate of growth slowed considerably from 2.2% the September quarter, it was a bit higher than 0.4% predicted by analysts. The unemployment rate slipped from 4.6% to 4.5% instead of rising to 4.7% as experts had predicted. It was the lowest level since December 2008.
The news was very positive to the currency, especially considering that it was the last major report before tomorrow’s policy meeting of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand. While specialists do not expect that the RBNZ will change its monetary policy, the favorable employment data may encourage the central bank to be more hawkish in the future.
NZD/USD traded at 0.7312 as of 11:51 GMT today after opening at 0.7306 and rising to the daily high of 0.7350. NZD/JPY slid from 80.03 to 79.84 after touching the daily high of 80.55. EUR/NZD declined from 1.6935 to 1.6882.
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