"Adrian Orr said the economy is in a pretty healthy state," said Martin Rudings, a senior dealer at OMF. "That always works for people who are looking for something to buy."
By contrast, "there's too much global steel and iron ore just keeps getting sold. China has a lot of stockpiles", he said. Ultimately, "trade tariffs will slow global growth" and that has weighed on the kiwi, and left some investors "a little bit short kiwi".
Figures today showed New Zealand recorded a trade surplus of $217 million in February compared to a $42m deficit in February last year. Goods exports jumped 11 per cent, outpacing a 4.6 per cent gain for imports.
Milk powder, butter, and cheese shipments kept dairy products as the country's largest commodity export, with that category up 5.3 per cent to $1.095 billion.
Earlier, Orr and Finance Minister Grant Robertson held a joint briefing to announce the expanded PTA and proposed changes to the Reserve Bank Act that will put policy decisions in the hands of a committee.
The kiwi dollar rose to 51.33p from 51.14p in New York on Friday and gained to 58.77 euro cents from 58.56 cents. It rose to 4.5909 yuan from 4.5654 yuan and gained to 76.29 yen from 75.76 yen.
New Zealand's two-year swap rate rose 1 basis point to 2.23 per cent and the 10-year swap rate rose 2 basis points to 3.12 per cent.
