The New Zealand dollar had a mixed day on Friday, falling against the United States and Australian dollars and the yen but slightly higher against other currencies.
ASB Bank head of external foreign exchange sales Tim Kelleher said rumours about Australia's central bank and comments from our Reserve Bank drove the New Zealand down against its Australian and US counterparts.
"Talk (is) that the Reserve Bank of Australia next week will announce they are going to take off their easing bias on the currency and their economy, so that's seen the Australian dollar hold steady," Mr Kelleher said.
"Obviously since then we've also had the Reserve Bank of New Zealand not putting a rate hike in yesterday, delaying it until March."
Reserve Bank Governor Graeme Wheeler had talked about the New Zealand dollar being overvalued in the long run, and his latest comment was that he did not necessarily have to crunch the New Zealand economy, Mr Kelleher said. That had lead to the market suspecting that imminent rate hikes may not be as hard and fast as some people had priced in in the past few days.
Dr Wheeler had previously said he expected to raise the Official Cash Rate to about 4.5 percent over the next two years to curb faster-than-capacity growth and the resulting inflation.
Just after 5pm, the New Zealand dollar was buying: 81.46 US cents, down from 81.8 cents this time on Thursday, and 92.74 Australian cents, down nearly a cent from 93.65 cents. It was also buying 49.45 pence, 0.6012 euro and 83.55 yen.
Sharemarket positive
The sharemarket ended the week on a positive note, the NZX Top 50 Index gaining 25 points to 4875.
First NZ Capital broker Don Lewthwaite said strong offshore markets helped local stocks.
Fletcher Building shares climbed 21 cents to $9.08, Mainfreight gained 30 cents to $13.10 and Port of Tauranga rose 40 cents to $14.50.
