Unemployment rate falls, pushing NZ dollar and equities higher

Wed, 03 Feb 2021

New Zealand shares and dollar both moved higher on Wednesday, reflecting labour market data that came in much stronger than expected as the recovery from the pandemic picks up pace. The official unemployment rate fell to 4.9 percent in the December quarter, significantly lower than the 5.9 percent economists had expected.Stephen Toplis, head of research at BNZ, said market participants responded to the data release by buying the kiwi dollar and bidding long-dated bond yields higher.The kiwi dollar was trading at 72.13 US cents at 5pm in W...

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