Australian, New Zealand Dollars Rise on Rate Cut Expectations

By Candice Zachariahs

Nov. 3 (Bloomberg) -- The Australian and New Zealand dollars rose on anticipation that rate cuts worldwide will bolster global economic growth.

The currencies rose before a meeting tomorrow where the Reserve Bank of Australia will reduce its benchmark rate 50 basis points to 5.5 percent, according to 13 of 14 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. A basis point is 0.01 percentage point.

``There's a 50 basis-point rate cut priced in for this week,'' said Greg Gibbs, a currency strategist at ABN Amro Australia Ltd. in Sydney. ``The ranges of the past couple of weeks will be where we're trading the next few weeks as well.''

Australia's currency rose 0.3 percent to 67.01 U.S. cents as of 8:07 a.m. in Sydney from 66.79 cents late in New York Oct. 31. The currency advanced 0.5 percent to 66.08 yen.

New Zealand's dollar gained 0.3 percent to 58.42 U.S. cents from 58.27 in New York last week. It bought 57.60 yen from 57.38.

The currencies rose last week after central banks including the Federal Reserve and the People's Bank of China lowered borrowing costs to boost slowing growth.

New Zealand's dollar advanced after Finance Minister Michael Cullen said Nov. 1 that the government will guarantee overseas debt sales by the nation's banks to help maintain access to international wholesale funding.

The Australian dollar has fallen 19 percent versus the yen and 14 percent against the dollar over the past month as the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. on Sept. 15 led to a freeze in lending that spurred investors to dump equities on concerns the world economy is headed for a recession.

Futures traders last week increased their bets that the Australian dollar will decline against the U.S. dollar, figures from the Washington-based Commodity Futures Trading Commission show.

The difference in the number of wagers by hedge funds and other large speculators on a decline in the Australian dollar compared with those on a gain -- so-called net shorts -- was 9,819 on Oct. 28, compared with net shorts of 7,234 a week earlier.

To contact the reporter on this story: Candice Zachariahs in Sydney at czachariahs2@bloomberg.net