Kiwi dollar's woes continue

The New Zealand dollar remained on the back foot over the weekend as falling stock markets and more gloomy economic news kept investor risk aversion high. Added to the pressure on the kiwi were figures released on Friday revealing the government deficit for the 6 months until December worsened to NZ$6.22 billion. This was well below a forecast NZ$2.19 billion surplus and kept the kiwi under pressure, given Standard and Poor’s warning last month that New Zealand risked losing its current credit rating if the government could not come up with a credible fiscal plan to tackle the imbalances in the economy.