The shrinking of the New Zealand dollar

Press, 12 March 1985, Page 25

The shrinking of the New Zealand dollar

By LES BLOXHAM, travel editor The strength of the United States dollar and the steady weakening of the British pound is dramatically illustrated in the accompanying table of exchange rates over the last five years. On March 1, 1981, travellers from New Zealand wanting to exchange SNZIOOO would have received SUS9IB. Yesterday, they would have received only $452 — a drop of 51 per cent. The British pound, however, has tumbled to such a degree since 1981 that travellers yesterday would have received £l2 more than the £412 their SNZIOOO would have bought five years

ago. While the currencies of Singapore, Japan, and Canada have remained comparatively strong, the value of the New Zealand dollar has weakened by only 17 per cent against the Australian dollar. Exchange rates yesterday and on Friday appeared to be stabilising after an erratic week following the Government’s decision to float the dollar from March 4. In the accompanying table, the 198184 rates were calculated on figures applying on the first Monday of each March.

$NZ1000= SUS $Can SAust £Stg Yen SSing Mar ’81 918 1104 790 412 190,150 1900 Mar ’82 782 956 730 427 183,790 1640 Mar ’83 710 797 750 470 166,880 1471 Mar ’84 661 829 704 447 153,850 1397 1985 March 1 440 612 623 411 114,320 993 March 4 432 602 609 403 112,400 982 March 5 426 596 608 399 110,900 968 March 6 462 649 673 440 120,600 1051 March 7 457 643 666 428 118,920 1040 March 8 450 634 656 426 117,700 1023 Yesterday 452 634 655 424 117,800 1026 Variation —51% —43% —17% +3% —38% —46%