25 Jul 2014

Wheeler finally gets fall in NZ dollar

8:29 am on 25 July 2014

Reserve Bank Governor Graeme Wheeler finally got one thing he wanted on Thursday: a fall in the New Zealand dollar.

Reserve Bank governor Graeme Wheeler

Reserve Bank governor Graeme Wheeler Photo: RNZ

However, the market is divided as to how much further the currency will drop.

The New Zealand dollar fell from just above 87 US cents to as low as 85.90 cents on Thursday.

Bancorp Treasury Services senior client advisor Peter Cavanaugh said the currency's decline was likely to be short-lived.

New Zealand's interest rates were already higher than those of most of the country's trading partners and looked set to go even higher before other central banks started tightening, he said.

However, ANZ senior foreign exchange strategist Sam Tuck believed the New Zealand dollar would fall further.

He said commodity prices had declined significantly, with milk prices down 34 percent, rate hikes were beginning to have some signs of impact. which the RBNZ acknowledged in its statement, and the US economy was expected to improve in the next three months.