Investing.com - The Australian slid lower against its U.S. counterpart on Thursday, despite the release of an upbeat Australian jobs report, while the New Zealand dollar gained ground on strong economic growth and after the Federal Reserve left its monetary policy unchanged.
AUD/USD fell 0.27% to 0.7388.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported on Thursday that the number of employed people rose by 17,900 in May, beating expectations for an increase of 15,000. The number of employed people rose by 900 in April, whose figure was revised from a previously estimated 10,800 gain.
The unemployment rate remained unchanged at 5.7% last month, in line with expectations.
In addition, the Melbourne Institute said its inflation expectations for the next 12 months ticked up to 3.5% in May from 3.2% the previous month.
NZD/USD climbed 0.65% to trade at 0.7080.
Statistics New Zealand said on Thursday that the country’s gross domestic product rose 0.7% in the first quarter, exceeding expectations for an increase of 0.5%, after a growht rate of 0.9% in the three months to December.
Year-on-year, New Zealand’s GDP rose by 2.8% in the last quarter, compared to expectations for a growth rate of 2.6%.
Meanwhile, the greenback weakened broadly after the Federal Reserve pushed back its plans to raise interest rates, citing weakness in recent employment data.
At the conclusion of its two-day policy meeting on Wednesday, the U.S. central bank also lowered its projections for short-terme GDP growth to 2%.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was down 0.30% at 94.39, the lowest since June 10.