New Zealand dollar trades below 63 US cents

Daily Currency Update

The Kiwi dollar is slightly weaker this morning when valued against the Greenback trading at 0.6288 at the time of writing. On Friday the NZD/USD pair reverses an intraday dip to the 0.6300 level reaching a fresh daily high during the early European session. The NZD/USD pair was up over 0.30% for the day, though remains well below the weekly top touched on Thursday. NZ rates continued to push higher, driven by global forces, with the tone not helped by a couple of rare positive domestic economic surprises – the manufacturing PMI rising above the 50 mark for the first time in four months and electronic card transactions rising 3.3% m/m in January, bouncing back after contractions in November and December.
Looking to the week ahead and on Monday we will see the release of the BusinessNZ Services Index which is a survey of purchasing managers that asks respondents to rate the relative level of business conditions including employment, production, new orders, prices, supplier deliveries, and inventories. On Tuesday we will see the release of the Food Price Index (FPI). Although food is among the most volatile consumer price components, this indicator garners some attention because New Zealand's major inflation data is released on a quarterly basis. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand will also deliver their quarterly Inflation Expectations a survey of about 100 consumers that asks respondents where they expect prices to be 24 months in the future. On Thursday we will see the release of the monthly Visitor Arrivals.