The impact on the New Zealand dollar of Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard's surprise statement yesterday morning appeared to be wearing off less than 24 hours later.

By 8am today the kiwi was up to US56.66c after spurting up a fifth of a cent in the previous 15 minutes.

After Dr Bollard took the unusual move at 9am yesterday of making an unscheduled statement about his concern at recent rises in long-term wholesale interest rates, the kiwi dropped 1c like a stone to US56c.

By 7pm it got down to a low point around US55.30c but was back above US56.10c for most of the early morning hours today.

The ANZ bank said that overnight the kiwi had quickly found underlying buyers who measured up relative yield scenarios correctly.

Evidence overnight backed data from the past few weeks to show that while the global economy was still contracting, the pace of that contraction was slowing.

The NZ dollar followed a similar pattern against the European and Japanese currencies as it had against the greenback.

By the local open the kiwi was at 0.4283 euro from 0.4219 at 5pm, and at 55.93 yen from 54.99.

Against the Australian dollar, the kiwi made only a slight recovery from the overnight low and by 8am was at A81.25c from A80.90c at the local close. The trade weighted index was 56.73 at 8am from 56.01 at 5pm.

- NZPA