or the US session ahead. The pair has rallied from a low of 0.6482 to a high of 0.6506 so far, reaching the highs of Wednesday with the multi-month highs in sight that were made following New Zealand's Consumer Inflation data that held near three-decade highs in the fourth quarter.
New Zealand’s annual inflation stood at 7.2% in the December quarter, higher than market expectations for a 7.1% rise but below the Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s forecast of 7.5% Nevertheless, this was bolstering expectations of less aggressive interest rate hikes in the coming months. There is sentiment for only a 50 basis point rate hike in February after delivering a record 75 basis point increase in November.on February 1.
Analysts at ANZ Bank said that the upcoming personal income, expenditure and deflator data is arguably more important. ''Consensus expects a 0.1% decline in real personal spending. That would be the first decline in 12 months and the first fall that was not driven by COVID-19 restrictions for quite a few years,'' the analysts argued. ''The core deflator isat 0.3% MoM with annual inflation at 4.4% YoY.