Looks Like Someone Is Pushing the Kiwi Dollar Downward!

<p>&nbsp;The New Zealand dollar is under widespread selling pressure following the release of mixed jobs data earlier in the Asian session today.</p><p><br /></p><p>New Zealand's unemployment rate rose to 3.6% in the second quarter from 3.4% recorded the previous quarter, and was higher than the expected 3.5%.</p><p><br /></p><p>Meanwhile, annual wage inflation eased to 4.3% but employment rose 1% from the previous three months, beating market expectations for a 0.6% increase.</p><p><br /></p><p>This indirectly shows that the strengthening in the labor market is starting to subside even though it is still seen as tight.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>This supports the actions of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) last month which has kept its interest rate unchanged at 5.50%.</p><p><br /></p><p>In addition, the central bank has also signaled that it has raised rates enough to tame inflation and the economy has stalled, suggesting the unemployment rate should continue to rise.</p><p><br /></p><p>As a result, markets expect the RBNZ to leave interest rates unchanged later this month and say signs of easing in the labor market will provide some comfort to the central bank.</p><p><br /></p><p>The latest data has pressured the kiwi dollar to trade further lower, seeing it trade 0.8% lower against the greenback to around 0.6095 at the time of writing.</p>