The New Zealand dollar rose today on hopes for economic growth in China and after the Reserve Bank of New Zealand left its key Official Cash Rate unchanged and issued rather positive statement.

The RBNZ left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 2.5 percent yesterday. The accompanying statement was optimistic, saying that “global growth is set to recover in 2013″ and that domestic data “suggest GDP growth is recovering from the softness seen through the middle of last year”. China’s manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index, that is released later this week, is expected to show acceleration of the sector’s growth. China is the second biggest trading partner of New Zealand and its economic performance strongly affects the NZ dollar.

NZD/USD rose from 0.8355 to 0.8372 as of 11:03 GMT today. NZD/JPY advanced from 76.09 to 76.22, bouncing from the daily minimum of 75.72.

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