The New Zealand dollar was the strongest currency on the Forex market today but the rally was nowhere near enough to mitigate the sharp decline that the kiwi has started a month ago. The major event today is the release of the monetary policy meeting minutes by the Federal Open Market Committee, but most market participants do not expect them to reveal anything particularly new and interesting.
Statistics New Zealand released a report on the Producer Price Index in the June quarter today. The input PPI fell 1.0%, while the output PPI declined 0.3%. Stats NZ commented on the result:
As the COVID-19 global pandemic spread, falling prices for crude oil, milk, and meat led to a drop in producersâ costs of production in the June 2020 quarter.
Business prices delivery manager Bryan Downes added further:
As the pandemic spread in the first half of 2020, demand and prices for fuel slumped, with far fewer people travelling by air or road during lockdowns around the world. This meant much lower crude oil input costs for petroleum and coal product manufacturing in New Zealand, but a fall in demand also saw a fall in the output prices they received.
Released yesterday, the GlobalDairyTrade Price Index fell by 1.7%. The decline followed a 5.1% drop in the previous reporting period.
NZD/USD rose from 0.6600 to 0.6642 as of 11:57 GMT today. EUR/NZD declined from 1.8072 to 1.7962. NZD/JPY gained from 69.57 to 69.91.
If you have any questions, comments, or opinions regarding the New Zealand Dollar, feel free to post them using the commentary form below.