The kiwi hit a 5-month low against the U.S. dollar on Thursday, after data showed that New Zealand's unemployment rate surged to 7.3% during the fourth quarter of 2009, its highest level in ten years.
During early European trade, NZD/USD hit 0.6937, its lowest rate since Sept. 10; it subsequently consolidated around 0.6954. The pair was likely to find long-term support at 0.6683, the low of Sept. 2, and resistance around 0.7151, Wednesday's high.
Earlier in the day, official figures released by New Zealand's data agency showed that the country's unemployment rate was 3.5% higher than at the start of 2008. The number of jobless people climbed 18,000 during the quarter that ended Dec. 31 to 168,000, Statistics New Zealand said.
The hike in unemployment was significantly higher than the rise expected by analysts, who had forecast it to come in at 6.8%.
Later Thursday, the United States was set to release weekly report on Initial Jobless Claims, an important indicator of overall economic health, and a report on the productivity of U.S. workers, excluding the agriculture sector.