The Australian and New Zealand dollars fell as lingering concern about Europe’s debt crisis and the U.S. economy damped demand for growth-sensitive currencies. The so-called Aussie and kiwi dollars declined against most of their 16 major counterparts after the International Monetary Fund said its 26 billion-euro ($38 billion) loan to Portugal "entails important risks." The two currencies also fell as stock losses sapped demand for higher-yielding assets. "Europe’s situation is grave even though people have been rather optimistic," said Tsutomu Soma, a bond and currency dealer at Okasan Securities Co. in Tokyo. "Commodity currencies are losing momentum with the U.S. economy slowing." Australia’s dollar fell to $1.0661 as of 2:05 p.m. in Sydney from $1.0721 in New York yesterday. The so-called Aussie dropped to 85.23 yen from 85.87. New Zealand’s dollar declined to 81.67 U.S. cents from 82.05. It touched a record 82.64 U.S. cents on May 31. The so- called kiwi fell 0.7 percent to 65.28 yen. The measures attached to the loan for Portugal "may fail to alleviate sovereign debt concerns, with an adverse impact on government financing prospects," IMF staff wrote in a May 17 report that was posted on the fund’s website yesterday. U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said yesterday the central bank should maintain record monetary stimulus to boost an "uneven" and "frustratingly slow" recovery in the economy. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index of regional shares dropped 0.6 percent. ‘Sensitive’ Aussie "As the global economy slows, the Aussie dollar is getting sensitive to negative factors," said Takuya Kawabata, a researcher in Tokyo at Gaitame.com Research Institute Ltd., a unit of Japan’s largest currency margin company. "Expectations waned about immediate rate increases in Australia." The Reserve Bank of Australia yesterday held interest rates unchanged and said current policy settings are appropriate. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand is forecast to keep its benchmark rate at 2.5 percent tomorrow, according to all 15 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. Data showed today that Australia’s home loans gained 4.8 percent in April following a revised 1.1 percent decline in March. Employers added 25,000 jobs in May after cutting 22,100 in April, while the jobless rate was unchanged at 4.9 percent, according to the median estimate of economists in a Bloomberg survey before the statistics bureau data tomorrow. Australian bond futures fell for a second day. Ten-year contracts for June delivery dropped to 94.740 on the Sydney Futures Exchange from 94.785. The implied yield rose 4.5 basis points to 5.26 percent. A basis point is 0.01 percentage point. The yield on Australia’s 10-year note rose four basis points to 5.265 percent, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. New Zealand’s two-year swap rate, a fixed payment made to receive floating rates, fell to 3.355 percent from 3.37 percent yesterday. To contact the reporter on this story: Yoshiaki Nohara in Tokyo at ynohara1@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Rocky Swift at rswift5@bloomberg.net

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