The New Zealand dollar was soft today amid the risk-negative market sentiment, which was dragging commodity-geared currencies lower. Losses were limited, though, as domestic macroeconomic data was decent and supportive to the currency of New Zealand.
Released yesterday, the GlobalDairyTrade Price Index rose by 1.7% versus the 3.7% increase registered in the previous reporting period. Dairy products are an important source of export revenue for New Zealand, making dairy prices a significant factor affecting the performance of the New Zealand dollar.
Statistics New Zealand reported that the input producer price index rose by 0.9% in the September quarter following the 0.3% gain registered in the previous quarter, while the output PPI rose by 1.0% following the 0.5% increase logged in the previous three months. That is compared with an increase of 0.2% predicted for the input PPI and a gain of 0.4% forecast of the output PPI.
Optimism for a trade deal between the United States and China was slowly waning after Chinese officials voiced skepticism about the possibility of an agreement and US President Donald Trump threatened to increase tariffs on Chinese imports if the deal is not achieved. While that affected all markets, the New Zealand currency was especially vulnerable due to the close trading ties of New Zealand to China.
NZD/USD fell from 0.6430 to 0.6419 as of 12:19 GMT today, reaching the low of 0.6404 intraday. EUR/NZD was little changed at 1.7222 after rising to the daily high of 1.7267 earlier. NZD/JPY declined from 69.78 to 69.63, while its daily low was at 69.41.
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