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NZD and AUS Dollars fight like their Cricketers

March 8, 2010 10:00 by Admin

Australian and New Zealand cricket players headed straight into the firing line of the sporting media last week after Aussie cricketer Mitchell Johnson was fined for head-butting the helmet of Scott Styris last week in the opening game of the Chappell-Hadlee series. Former New Zealand captain and ICC match referee John Reid says the Australian team includes ''idiots'' who need to pull their heads in. “Generally the Australian team looks good but there are a handful of idiots who need to be reined in. Do your work with the bat and the ball, not your mouth. It's not necessary.” But Kiwi coach Mark Greatbatch, has applauded Mitchell Johnson and the tourists for their roles in setting the Chappell-Hadlee series alight.

Demand for the New Zealand Dollar was boosted last week as French President Nicolas Sarkozy confirmed that members of the European union are ready to rescue Greece. Greece currently has the largest budget deficit of the region, at 12.7% of Gross Domestic Product but the country announced that it will address its internal monetary problems and hopefully not require an international bailout. The Kiwi rose further after a report in the US showed that job losses in the US are finally slowing down, increasing hopes that the US economic recovery is on track.

Australia increased interest rates last week Tuesday to 4% after taking a pause from hiking rates in February, which increased demand for the Aussie Dollar as investors channeled funds into the country in hopes of a higher rate of return. Despite the New Zealand Dollar’s strength against the Euro and US currencies, it is still significantly weaker against the Aussie as it struggles to keep up with the Australian economic resurgence, and plunged to its lowest level in 10 years on Friday. Analysts are only expecting the Kiwi to claw its way back from this mid-way through the year when the local Reserve Bank starts to increase interest rates again.

This week, local foreign exchange movements will be influenced more by domestic data than international sentiment as the Reserve Bank of New Zealand makes an assessment on Thursday of the state of the nation’s economy and whether interest rate rises will start resuming again in June this year.

Composed by Marilyn Carter
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