NZD/USD has performed strongly in the first two months of the year, extending a strong finish to the previous year and now to levels last seen in 2018. Patrick Bennett from CIBC Capital Markets expects to see further gains as activity recovers and forecast the kiwi at 0.75 in the coming months.
Key quotes
“We see NZD continuing tracking to stronger levels as the economy rebound continues and global reflation pricing supports commodity prices, though we doubt the same pace of gains seen to date will be repeated over the next quarter.”
“RBNZ, as other central banks have done, has reconfirmed its commitment to keep policy accommodative for some extended time. The recent backing up in global yields sees NZ bond yields near the highest in G10, and we expect that fact to attract portfolio flows and support the NZD.”
“We doubt there are tools available to change the NZD outcome over more than the short-term. We forecast gains for the NZD against the USD and JPY, and some underperformance against the AUD.”