Creeping back up

The NZ$ has been creeping back up against the US$ since the high and subsequent fall in July and August. Some traders are talking about a permanent shift in the normal range from 50c to 70c up to a new range of 70c to 85c.

The very beginning of this series shows the 20% devaluation that Muldoon wouldn’t agree to, sparking a constitutional crisis. The data is all from the Reserve Bank and is their monthly averages.

It has been a long time since we were below 60c.

But still if you think 80c is unbearable, look at the full historic series:

The main reason we can’t survive at those rates any more is because our inflation was higher than those of the US.