Investing.com - The Australian and New Zealand dollars moved lower against their U.S. counterpart on Wednesday, after the release of downbeat economic reports from both Australia and New Zealand.
AUD/USD tumbled 1.64% to 0.7620, the lowest since April 18.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday that the consumer price index fell 0.2% in the first quarter, disappointing expectations for a 0.3% rise, after an increase of 0.4% in the three months to December.
Year-on-year, consumer prices increased by 1.3% in the three months to March, compared to expectations for a 1.8% gain.
Australia’s trimmed mean CPI, which excludes the most volatile 30% of items, ticked up 0.2% in the first quarter, confounding expectations for a 0.5% advance and after a 0.6% rise in the previous quarter.
NZD/USD slid 0.45% to trade at 0.6867.
Statistics New Zealand earlier reported that the country’s trade surplus narrowed to NZ$117 million in March from NZ$339 million the previous month. Analysts had expected the trade surplus to widen to NZ$476 million in March.
But the greenback’s gains were limited as investors remained cautious ahead of the Federal Reserve’s policy statement, due later Wednesday amid ongoing uncertainty over the pace and timing of future rate hikes.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was up 0.08% at 94.54.