The New Zealand dollar rose as news that US President Donald Trump had dumped adviser Steve Bannon kept politics to the fore and traders looked ahead to the central bank meeting at Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen is due to speak.
The kiwi traded at 73.11 US cents as at 8:30am in Wellington from 73.12 cents in New York on Friday and up from 72.95 cents in Wellington at the end of last week. The trade-weighted index was at 77 from 76.99 in New York.
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The White House confirmed on Friday that Bannon is the latest adviser to leave the administration and there was debate among traders on whether that could encourage Trump to push policies he campaigned on that would aid the US economy, such as tax cuts. At Jackson Hole, Yellen may provide clues to the prospects for further rate hikes and the unwind of the Fed's balance sheet while European Central Bank president Mario Draghi may comment on ending Europe's quantitative easing.