Investing.com - The New Zealand dollar held steady against its U.S. counterpart on Thursday, after the Reserve Bank of New Zealand left interest rates on hold, while the Australian dollar moved higher as the Federal Reserve’s latest policy decision weighed broadly on the greenback.
NZD/USD was little changed at 0.7340.
In a widely expected move, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand left its benchamark interest rate unchanged at 2.00%, but said that further rate cuts would be needed to boost inflation.
"Our current projections and assumptions indicate that further policy easing will be required to ensure that future inflation settles near the middle of the target range," RBNZ Governor Graeme Wheeler said.
AUD/USD rose 0.33% to trade at 0.7651, the highest since September 9.
Meanwhile, the greenback came under pressure after the Federal Reserve also left interest rates unchanged at the conclusion of its policy meeting on Wednesday.
In addition, the Fed cut the number of rate increases it expects this year to one from two and projected a less aggressive rise in interest rates next year and in 2018.
However, the U.S. central bank signaled that it could tighten monetary policy before the end of the year if the job market continued to improve.
The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was down 0.28% at a one-week low of 95.19.