Winston Peters, which held the balance of power for around three long weeks, decided to go for Labour leaders Jacinda Ardern. His NZ First Party will join the Greens in a coalition under Ardern. Markets preferred the incumbent Bill English of the more market-friendly National which held power for around a decade.
Peters kept everybody waiting while he was taking his time for consultations and negotiations. The ministerial positions have not been decided just yet but it is clear that Peters will not become the finance minister.
The currency doesn’t like it and falls by more than 1%. The high for the day was 0.7170 and the pair now trades at 0.7063. The low so far was 0.7048. The kiwi had already dropped quite a bit after the inconclusive election results. Both National and also the bloc of Labour/Greens could not reach 61 seats in parliament – an absolute majority in a chamber of 120.
The round number of 0.70 is getting closer. Further below, we find 0.6970 quite close by, followed by 0.6880. Resistance is at 0.72, which seems far away.
