The New Zealand dollar strengthened today after the jobless rate improved and Alan Bollard, governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, suggested that the central bank may increase the interest rates as the economy become “less fragile”.

New Zealand’s jobless rate fell to 6 percent in the first quarter, compared to 7.1 percent in the previous three months, the lowest level since 1986. Bollard declared that:

Financial markets currently expect the Reserve Bank to begin raising the official cash rate around the middle of the year and continue to do this in small steps for some time. This is broadly in line with our current views.

NZD/USD traded near 0.7253 today as of 10:11 GMT up from its opening rate of 0.7171.

If you have any questions, comments or opinions regarding the New Zealand Dollar, feel free to post them using the commentary form below.