Australian and New Zealand Dollars Fall on Growth Concerns

“The Australian and New Zealand dollars slid against most major peers as Asian stocks extended a global retreat, sapping demand for higher-yielding assets.

Both currencies are headed for their first monthly drop this year amid concern Chinese manufacturing will slow, curbing demand for resource exports. Australia’s dollar touched the weakest level in five months against New Zealand’s currency before a report forecast to show annual growth in bank lending in the larger nation was the slowest since August.

“A drop in Asian stocks is a negative catalyst for the South Pacific nations’ currencies,” said Takuya Kawabata, a researcher at Gaitame.com Research Institute Ltd. in Tokyo, a unit ofJapan’s largest currency-margin company. “We’d like to be cautious about a Chinese slowdown because it weighs on Australia’s dollar.”

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