NZD/USD to trade at 0.65 by year-end – Westpac

Economists at Westpac Institutional Bank have updated the New Zealander economic outlook and now forecast the NZD/USD to trade at 0.65 by the end of 2020. The kiwi is trading just above the 0.64 level today as sheds -0.41%.

Key quotes

“We now forecast annual GDP growth for 2020 compared to 2019 will be -4% (previously -6%).”

“We have revised our forecast for the peak in unemployment to 8% (down from our earlier estimate of 9.5%), with that peak expected to occur in the September quarter.”

“The RBNZ will gradually expand its Large Scale Asset Purchase Programme (LSAP) to $100 billion and will lower the OCR to -0.5% in April next year.”

“We now expect that the NZD/USD pair will rise to 0.65 by the end of this year.”