WELLINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The New Zealand dollar recovered from early downtrend against the US dollar during late New York deals on Thursday.
The kiwi edged down against the US dollar in Thursday's Asian session as stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly lower during trading. The kiwi-greenback pair closed today's Asian session at 79.63.
Economic news in Asia showed that Chinese consumer price index rose 4.1 percent year-on-year in December, slower than the 4.2 percent rise in the previous month. Economists expected a 4 percent increase in the CPI. On a monthly basis, the index was up 0.3 percent. In 2011 as a whole, consumer prices rose 5.4 percent compared to 2010.
The NZ currency reversed its early Asian session's weakness against the greenback in today's European deals and hit a multi-month high of 0.7983 at about 7:15 am ET. Thereafter, the pair traded lower and touched a 2-day low of 0.7912 as of 10:40 am ET. The kiwi closed today's European session at 0.7927 versus the buck.
In late European session, the European Central Bank announced its interest rate decision. The ECB left its interest rates unchanged, after lowering it in the previous two months. The Governing Council led by ECB President Mario Draghi decided to maintain the main refi rate at 1 percent in line with economists' expectations.
After touching the 2-day low at about 10:40 am ET, the NZ currency recovered against its US counterpart in today's late new York trading. As of now, the pair is trading near 0.7945.
On the economic front, the U.S. Commerce Department revealed in its report an advance estimate of retail sales at a seasonally adjusted level of $400.6 billion, up just 0.1 percent from November levels.
Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX