The New Zealand dollar fell after Reserve Bank governor Graeme Wheeler talked down the prospects of intervening in currency markets and ruled out printing more money to stoke the local economic recovery.
The kiwi fell to 81.80 US cents at 5pm in Wellington from 82.16 cents at 8am and 82.21 cents. The trade-weighted index declined to 73.10 from 73.34.
RBNZ's Mr Wheeler told a business audience in Auckland that quantitative easing isn't needed in New Zealand and that there's more scope to cut rates if need be.
He also ruled out intervening in currency markets, saying such a move "is unlikely to have a sustainable effect on the New Zealand dollar".
His first public speech as governor comes a day after his debut official cash rate review, where he kept the benchmark rate on hold at 2.5 per cent.
"People are probably reading too much into it - December is going to be the big one when we get the forecasts" in from the quarterly monetary policy statement, said Chris Tennent-Brown, FX economist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney.
Traders are awaiting the November 6 US Presidential election, which will give traders some clue as to how the world's biggest economy will deal with massive Federal government budget cuts, colloquially known as the "fiscal cliff".
The kiwi fell to 50.74 British pence from 51.23 pence after the UK economy unexpectedly grew 1 per cent in the third quarter on the strength of the Olympic Games.
That's the fastest growth rate since 2007, and surprised economists who were picking the recession to endure.
The kiwi fell to 63.24 euro cents from 63.31 cents, and decreased to 79.23 Australian cents from 79.32 cents. It fell to 65.46 yen from 65.69 yen.
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