Australia’s dollar rose to a seven- month high and New Zealand’s reached the strongest level in three weeks as better-than-expected reports on jobs spurred optimism the global recession is easing. Australia’s dollar gained against 14 of the 16 most-active currencies, strengthening at least 0.5 percent, after the statistics bureau said the unemployment rate fell in April for the first time since August. New Zealand’s first-quarter jobless rate rose to 5 percent, compared with the 5.3 percent median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey of economists. “The fact that the unemployment rate has fallen back down suggests that the downturn in the Australian economy is mild relative to other industrialized countries,” said Richard Grace, chief currency strategist at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney. “The upward trend for the Australian dollar is firmly in place and any pull-back will be mild.” Australia’s dollar touched 75.62 U.S. cents, the strongest since Oct. 6, before trading at 75.34 cents as of 2:52 p.m. in Sydney from 74.83 yesterday. The currency climbed to 74.64 yen, also a seven-month high, from 73.57 yen. New Zealand’s dollar rose as much as 1.4 percent to 59.18 U.S. cents, the highest since April 14, before trading at 58.83 cents. It bought 57.94 yen from 57.37 yen in New York. The currencies earlier rose after U.S. equities gained and prices of raw materials jumped yesterday to a six-month high when U.S. payrolls fell by an estimated 491,000 workers, the fewest since October, figures from ADP Employer Services yesterday showed. Commodities account for more than half of the South Pacific nations’ overseas shipments. Stocks, Commodities “More people are getting bold enough to put their spare cash slowly into equities and that’s taking the risk currencies with it,” said Imre Speizer, a market strategist in Wellington at Westpac Banking Corp. New Zealand’s dollar pared gains after Prime Minister John Key said the government will delay some promised spending as the prolonged recession curbs tax revenue. This month’s budget will reduce the amount of extra spending available for future budgets and make savings in less effective areas of government outlays, Key said today. “New Zealand simply can’t afford a runaway balance sheet,” Key said. Standard and Poor’s lowered the outlook on New Zealand’s AA+ foreign currency credit rating to negative in January on concern the nation’s current account deficit and overseas debt may curb growth and investment. Australian government bonds declined for the third day in four. The yield on 10-year notes rose 14 basis points, or 0.14 percentage point, to 4.92 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The price of the 5.25 percent security due March 2019 slid 1.07, or A$10.70 per A$1,000 face amount, to 102.57. New Zealand’s two-year swap rate, a fixed payment made to receive floating rates, rose for a fourth day to 3.57 percent.

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