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New Zealand Dollar is going insane!

Hi All, I am in a very difficult position. I am emigrating to New Zealand in Nov and went to buy some Dollars and found that they are the highest they have ever been.

Can anyone shed any light on this? We want to transfer our life savings but am quite worried now. Is the pound likely to slip any lower?

Can anyone recommend any good resources for me to read and try to understand what is going on and try to help me make an educated guess?

Thanks for any advice.

Comments

  • Can't say I know much (anything) about the New Zealand economy despite talking about it to a kiwi friend in the construction industry on Friday who was bemoaning the high uneployment levels there. Which is the reason he's re-applying for his UK work visa to stay here. Isn't your problem the strong rise of the NZD against all currencies including the UKP and USD that's been happening for quite a while? Whether that's to do with their high interest rates, five times the levels of the UK and US, or commodity prices I haven't a clue. Perhaps you could find a NZ financial board to ask where things are likely to go?
  • DiggerUK
    DiggerUK Posts: 4,992 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Commander,
    A good part of what you are seeing will be due to money being sent for deposit in NZ banks. It is usually referred to as "the carry trade" This leads to a higher demand for $NZ, and means the $NZ costs more.

    Why do it? to make a profit of course.
    Bank rates are 0.5% here and 2.5% in NZ.
  • Hi All, I am in a very difficult position. I am emigrating to New Zealand in Nov and went to buy some Dollars and found that they are the highest they have ever been.

    Can anyone shed any light on this? We want to transfer our life savings but am quite worried now. Is the pound likely to slip any lower?

    Can anyone recommend any good resources for me to read and try to understand what is going on and try to help me make an educated guess?

    Thanks for any advice.
    You can thank Gordon Brown for this. He's devalued the pound so no-one can afford to emigrate and escape his disastrous economic policies.
  • bendix
    bendix Posts: 5,499 Forumite
    DiggerUK wrote: »
    Commander,
    A good part of what you are seeing will be due to money being sent for deposit in NZ banks. It is usually referred to as "the carry trade" This leads to a higher demand for $NZ, and means the $NZ costs more.

    Why do it? to make a profit of course.
    Bank rates are 0.5% here and 2.5% in NZ.

    And retail rates are significantly higher too. Very easy to find 6-7% on a term deposit in NZ right now.
  • purch
    purch Posts: 9,865 Forumite
    You've been worried/panicing about this for months mate.

    Probably should have done something about it by now !!!!



    Are my savings likely to be worthless ?

    http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1427351&highlight=

    Worried about Inflation killing my savings

    http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1492881&highlight=
    'In nature, there are neither rewards nor punishments - there are Consequences.'
  • DiggerUK
    DiggerUK Posts: 4,992 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    bendix wrote: »
    And retail rates are significantly higher too. Very easy to find 6-7% on a term deposit in NZ right now.
    No wonder you have been raving about your Kiwi Kash, with the forex in your favour should you have to bail out
    What is the likelihood of NZ going to zirp? I get the feeling that the CB NZ is using this carry trade as back door QE, and would make it very difficult for them to keep their banking system liquid if they lost the carry cash by going to zirp.
  • purch wrote: »
    You've been worried/panicing about this for months mate.

    Probably should have done something about it by now !!!!



    Are my savings likely to be worthless ?

    http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1427351&highlight=

    Worried about Inflation killing my savings

    http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1492881&highlight=

    Are all 3,461 of your posts as constructive as this one? Would Rod Hull have been better off contacting his nearest Sky installer?? Muppet!

    Thanks to everyone else for their useful input.
  • gozomark
    gozomark Posts: 2,069 Forumite
    When did you make the decision to emigrate to NZ ?
  • stv1x
    stv1x Posts: 69 Forumite

    Can anyone recommend any good resources for me to read and try to understand what is going on and try to help me make an educated guess?

    Thanks for any advice.

    I've mentioned this one in the past, it's always worth following

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/currency/news/headlines.cfm?c_id=167

    Good luck with the move, fortunately/unfortunately we are at the very beginning of the road to emigrating to NZ so time is something we have plenty of with regards to a better exchange rate.

    Rates haven't been this bad since I've been watching them

    http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/fds/hi/business/market_data/currency/11/16/twelve_month.stm
  • We arrived in Auckland 12 weeks ago. Fortunately we transferred our initial chunk of living expenses in March at 2.7 and 2.8. However our house deposit cash is still in the UK and we are settling into a rental for at least 12 months now. You may just have to adapt your plans about when and how you move cash over. Basically we brought over $55k for two adults and two very young children to last 6 months without a job, cover living costs, a car, white goods for a rental etc.

    We're battling against a strong Kiwi and weak pound. NZ is out of recession according to today's news so I can't see a weakening for a long time. We're hoping the UK general election might cause a bounce but that is 2010. Sorry, wish it was better news as we're in the same boat.

    Now I need to find a term deposit account in the UK that I can set up from NZ to try and get some interest on our cash. Still, at least we don't have to worry about selling our UK house as the money won't be joining us for ages!!!
    Currently living in New Zealand wondering if the exchange rate will ever improve :confused:
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