New Zealand’s currency hit a 53-day low against the U.S. dollar on Monday. By 12:45 p.m. EST, the NZD/USD currency pair had slid close to 0.7% from its opening price of 0.70467 to a 53-day low of 0.69915. This price not been seen since January 11, 2017!
The NZD has been in decline since February 8, 2017, when the Reserve Bank of New Zealand opted to keep interest rates unchanged at 1.75%, and said the exchange rate of the NZD needed to come down for the economy to grow.
“The exchange rate remains higher than is sustainable for balanced growth,” said the RBNZ, on Feb. 8th.
Since RBNZ’s comments that day, the NZD has continued to decline against the greenback. While the NZD found some support in the second half of February, trading between 0.71360 to 0.7245, the start of March ushered in even more significant losses.
When measured against the highs on February 8th, the NZD has declined by 4.56% against the USD:
New Zealand banknotes photo by Clifton Johnston
