The Australian dollar has reached a new record low against the New Zealand dollar ahead of Thursday night’s European Central Bank policy meeting.
At 0700 AEDT on Thursday, the local currency was trading at 103.04 New Zealand cents, down from 103.51 cents on Wednesday.
The Australian dollar has fallen as low as 102.96 NZ cents, its lowest level since the kiwi was floated in 1985.
Meanwhile, The Aussie was at 78.20 US cents, down from 78.23 cents on Wednesday.
ANZ senior manager FX in Auckland, Sam Tuck, said both the Australian and NZ dollars had benefited from a sharp sell-off in the euro overnight as investors await more details on the ECB’s quantitative easing program.
He said commodity currencies like the Aussie and the Kiwi were strengthening after central banks in Australia and Canada kept interest rates on hold, improving the perception of commodity currencies.
“The program announced in January had very few details, so there’s a whole bunch of detail we don’t know about quantitative easing,” Tuck said.
The Kiwi had outperformed the Aussie dollar for technical reasons. “The Kiwi has less liquidity available, so a smaller amount of flow is having a larger impact on the NZ dollar,” he said.
AAP
