April 28 (Bloomberg) — The Australian and New Zealand dollars fell for a second day on speculation the spread of swine flu from Mexico will hurt tourism and deepen the global recession, spurring investors to sell riskier assets.
Demand for the currencies slid after Mexico’s peso tumbled the most in six months as the World Health Organization raised its pandemic alert to an unprecedented level. The Australian and New Zealand dollars also fell after European Central Bank Governing Council member Ewald Nowotny said the ECB is prepared to expand its range of policy tools if necessary to ease the flow of credit through the economy.
“Nowotny’s comments felled the euro and the New Zealand and Australian dollar are all down in sympathy,” said Alex Sinton, a senior currency dealer at ANZ National Bank Ltd. in Auckland. “The currencies will stay under pressure as things develop around those comments and the swine flu.”
Australia’s currency slid 0.4 percent to 70.74 U.S. cents as of 8:02 a.m. in Sydney from 71 cents in New York yesterday. The currency fell 0.7 percent to 68.26 yen. New Zealand’s dollar declined 0.3 percent to 56.43 U.S. cents from 56.57 in New York. It bought 54.44 yen from 54.74.
To contact the reporter on this story: Candice Zachariahs in Mumbai at czachariahs2@bloomberg.net
Source:
By Candice Zachariahs
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601081&sid=a1cOfpsYBeCE&refer=australia
