The Australian dollar rebounded from its lowest level this year as the Group of 20 nations pledged to address rising risks to the global economy. The so-called Aussie maintained its advance versus most of its 16 major peers after Standard & Poor’s affirmed the country’s AAA credit rating with a stable outlook. New Zealand’s currency was set for the worst weekly slump in 16 months versus the yen as Asian stocks slid and Barclays Plc said the nation’s central bank may postpone an interest-rate increase. Shorter-term investors who bet that the Australian dollar would decline from above parity are “probably happy to take profit ahead of the weekend in case something does get agreed on from the G-20,” said Jonathan Cavenagh, a Singapore-based strategist at Westpac Banking Corp. “The market’s really looking for some type of circuit breaker to get out of this risk-averse mode that we’re in at the moment.” Australia’s dollar advanced to 97.84 U.S. cents at 2:57 p.m. in Sydney from 97.42 cents in New York yesterday, when it touched 96.92 cents, the lowest since Dec. 2. It climbed 0.6 percent to 74.69 yen. New Zealand’s currency traded at 78.02 U.S. cents from 78.05 cents yesterday, when it fell as low as 77.53 cents, a level unseen since April 12. The so-called kiwi was little changed at 59.57 yen. Governments and central banks are “committed to a strong and coordinated international response to address the renewed challenges facing the global economy,” G-20 policy makers said in a statement released after talks in Washington. Weekly Slumps The South Pacific currencies are set for their largest weekly declines versus the yen since May 2010. The Australian dollar has retreated 6.2 percent since Sept. 16, while the New Zealand currency has dropped 6.4 percent. “During this kind of risk-off period that we’re seeing, the Aussie and kiwi are traders’ favorite risk currencies to sell,” said Kara Ordway, a foreign-exchange strategist at City Index Asia Pacific in Sydney. “People are realizing that the U.S. and Europe are staring at recession in the face, and I guess moving on from that, what people are now worried about is that we’ll see a bigger slowdown in Asia.” The MSCI Asia Pacific excluding Japan Index dropped 2.1 percent today, set for a 10 percent slump this week, the worst five-day performance since October 2008. Japan’s financial markets were closed today for a holiday. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand is “highly likely” to postpone an interest-rate increase until the first quarter of next year, Hamish Pepper, a currency strategist at Barclays, wrote in a research note today. The U.K.-based bank today lowered its three-month forecast for the New Zealand dollar to 75 U.S. cents. The Aussie may drop to 93 cents over the same period, Pepper wrote. To contact the reporter on this story: Masaki Kondo in Singapore at mkondo3@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Garfield Reynolds at greynolds1@bloomberg.net

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