The Australian Dollar (AUD) extended early week moves against the New Zealand Dollar (NZD) pushing up to 1.0685 (0.9360) in Friday sessions reversing much of last week’s losses. NZ inflation expectations helped buoy the AUD when figures released at 2.5% for early 2026- much lower than the 2.76% number from November 2023 which started a wave of selling in the NZD. Aussie employment data came in light at 0.5k instead of 26.4 forecast as the change in the number of new people employed in January 2024. The unemployment rate also ticked up to 4.1% from 3.9%, the first time it’s been over 4.0% since Jan 2022. The Australian economy needs to generate around 30,000 new jobs per month to stop the unemployment rate blowing out. Expectations are that the unemployment rate will go much higher this year as economic pressures continue. RBA rate cuts should come into play later this year.
The current interbank midrate is: NZDAUD 0.9361 AUDNZD 1.0671
The interbank range this week has been: NZDAUD 0.9352- 0.9446 AUDNZD 1.0586- 1.0692