After weeks of big moves in the British Pound (GBP), New Zealand Dollar (NZD) this week has seen relatively speaking mostly sideways play. Perhaps the GBP has held up slightly better from an upbeat UK budget. The Pound dipped to a low of 1.9415 before settling early around 1.9560 (0.5115) areas. UK’s Hunt has said the UK will not enter a recession this year as the outlook slowly improves and “inflation halves” – he predicts inflation to fall from 10.7% to 2.9% by the end of this year. The New Zealand Economy contracted more than expected in the fourth quarter of 2022 with figures reflecting a growth downturn of -0.6% compared to the forecast figure of -0.2%, this marks part 1 of entering a formal recession with two quarters in a row required. With the RBNZ interest rate at 4.75% we may only see a further 25-point hike to 5.0% at the 4th April meeting, this is based on earlier forecasting of a 5.5% peak in the cash rate mid this year. A retest of 0.5075 (1.9700) is our pick in the medium term.
The current interbank midrate is: NZDGBP 0.5109 GBPNZD 1.9573
The interbank range this week has been: NZDGBP 0.5087- 0.5150 GBPNZD 1.9415- 1.9658