Investing.com - The New Zealand dollar slipped lower against its U.S. counterpart on Monday, as expectations for the Federal Reserve to continue tapering its stimulus program supported demand for the greenback.
NZD/USD hit 0.8232 during late Asian trade, the pair's lowest since January 10; the pair subsequently consolidated at 0.8244, edging down 0.16%.
The pair was likely to find support at 0.8179, the low of January 3 and resistance at 0.8318, the high of January 8.
The greenback found support after data on Friday showed that U.S. industrial production rose 0.3% in December, in line with expectations, rising for the fifth successive month.
Another report showed that U.S. building permits rose less-than-expected in December, but remained close to November’s five year highs.
The data indicated that while the recovery in the U.S. remains uneven, the economic outlook is continuing to improve. The dollar has strengthened broadly since the Fed announced its decision in December to scale back its asset purchase program, cutting it by USD10 million, to USD75 billion-per-month.
Elsewhere, data on Monday showed that China’s economy grew 7.7% in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, slowing from 7.8% in the previous quarter, but still above the 7.6% forecast by economists.
China is New Zealand's second biggest export partner.
The kiwi was also lower against the Australian dollar, with AUD/NZD rising 0.32% to 1.0670.
Later in the day, New Zealand was to release data on consumer price inflation.