By Dan Bell
The NZD/USD opens around 0.8170 this morning, after trading to a low of 0.8130 yesterday afternoon.
Greece’s parliament approved their 2013 Budget which includes further austerity measures although EU officials were quoted as saying the next tranche of bailout funds (€31bn) will probably not be approved this week - apparently they are not completely satisfied that Greece will meet their budget requirements.
A meeting of EU finance Ministers kicks off tonight where markets will be looking for further comments related to Greece and Spain.
While things in Europe seem to get worse, the US continues to shows signs their economy is moving in the right direction.
A report by the International Energy Association notes that the US will overtake Saudi Arabia as the world’s leading oil producer by 2017 and will overtake Russia as the leading producer of natural gas in 2015.
The I.E.A. estimates that electricity prices will be about 50 percent cheaper in the United States than in Europe, largely because of a rise in the number of power plants fuelled by cheap natural gas.
The NZD opens at current indicative mid rates: 0.7840 AUD, 0.6431 EUR, 0.5150 GBP, 64.96 JPY, 0.8168 CAD.
Not much to report today. From NZ we get Food Price Index at 10:45am. From Australia we get Business Confidence at 1:30pm. ECOFIN meetings start today. German ZEW Economic Sentiment tonight.
The key announcement for the NZD over the next 24 hours will be Q3 Retail Sales tomorrow morning.
The weaker Q3 employment numbers last week have raised concerns about the NZ economy and increased expectations of further easing from the RBNZ.
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Dan Bell is the senior currency strategist at HiFX in Auckland. You can contact him here
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