The New Zealand dollar dropped today after the Reserve Bank of New Zealand maintained interest rates unchanged and suggested that it may intervene to weaken the currency. The currency erased the drop against the US dollar, but remained soft versus the Japanese yen.
The RBNZ left its main interest rate at 2.5 percent today. Governor Graeme Wheeler said in the accompanying statement:
Despite having fallen over the past few weeks, the New Zealand dollar remains overvalued and continues to be a headwind for the tradables sector, restricting export earnings and encouraging demand for imports.
He suggested that rates will likely remain unchanged this year, but warned after the announcement:
If we see the opportunity to try, for example, to take the tops off any exchange rate peak then we may exercise intervention.
NZD/USD was up from 0.7981 to 0.7999 as of 10:26 GMT today after touching the low of 0.7892. NZD/JPY declined from 76.64 to 75.48 and its daily low of 74.42 was weakest since January 24.
If you have any questions, comments or opinions regarding the New Zealand Dollar,
feel free to post them using the commentary form below.