The New Zealand dollar declined against its trans-Tasman counterpart after Chinese trade figures beat expectations, stoking optimism Australia's biggest trading partner won't slow any further.
The kiwi fell to 87.68 Australian cents at 5pm in Wellington from 88.04 cents on Wednesday. The NZ currency traded at 79.60 US cents at 5pm from 79.56 cents at 8am, up from 74.66 cents on Wednesday.
China's exports rose 5.1 per cent and imports 10.9 per cent in July, resulting in a $US17.8 billion ($NZ22.4 billion) trade surplus, according to official figures.
That fuelled demand for the Australian dollar, which has been under pressure as the looming peak in its resources boom nears and as a slowing economy has prompted interest rate cuts by the central bank.
The better than expected Chinese trade data overshadowed weaker Australian employment figures.
"This is short-term stuff - the Aussie is looking terribly weaker from where they've come from," said Imre Speizer, market strategist at Westpac Banking Corp in Auckland.
"The big trend for the kiwi/Aussie is to keep going (up) to the low 90s."
The kiwi traded at 76.92 yen from 76.80 yen on Wednesday after the Bank of Japan stuck to its planned monetary base expansion of 60 trillion yen ($NZ781.45 billion) to 70 trillion yen a year.
The kiwi also gained to 59.66 euro cents from 59.34 cents and the trade-weighted index increased to 74.90 from 74.66.
