NZ dollar dips as GDP growth revised down, Fed eyes rates

NZ dollar dips as economic growth revised down, Fed eyes rate hikes

By Paul McBeth

Dec. 18 (BusinessDesk) - The New Zealand dollar dipped after the country's pace of economic growth was revised down, though continued to beat expectations, and as the Federal Reserve gets closer to making a call on whether to hike interest rates.

The kiwi fell to 77.13 US cents at 5pm in Wellington from 77.80 cents at 8.15am and 77.36 cents yesterday. The trade-weighted index increased to 77.80 from 77.68.

New Zealand's economy grew 1 percent in the three months ended Sept. 30, beating economists' expectations, though the track of annual expansion was revised down after Statistics New Zealand changed the way it measures certain industries. While the quarterly growth initially stoked a rally in the kiwi, the downward revisions weighed in investors' appetite for the currency, which had already been dented by Fed chair Janet Yellen indicating rate hikes will be on the cards after the next two meetings.

"The fact that GDP was better than forecast, but revisions from the previous years meant it was a bit of a much of a muchness," said Tim Kelleher, head of institutional FX sales NZ at ASB Institutional in Auckland. "The kiwi's had a couple of goes at 77.50 US cents and failed, but is still largely in a range between 76.50 and 78.50."

ASB's Kelleher said markets were volatile and illiquid heading into the holiday period, and US data next week will largely drive the local currency's direction.

The kiwi climbed to 91.45 yen from 90.44 yen yesterday ahead of tomorrow's Bank of Japan policy review. Governor Haruhiko Kuroda boosted the central bank's asset purchase programme on Oct. 31, and tomorrow's policy review will be the first since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's Liberal Democratic Party won an increased mandate in last week's election.

The kiwi was little changed at 94.71 Australian cents from 94.78 cents yesterday, and fell to 62.47 euro cents from 62.89 cents. It rose to 49.48 British pence from 49.18 pence yesterday, and gained to 4.7918 Chinese yuan from 4.7897.

(BusinessDesk)

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