The Australian and New Zealand dollars surged as government data showed job gains in the two nations exceeded economists’ estimates, damping speculation their central banks will reduce interest rates. New Zealand’s currency rose against all 16 of its major counterparts a day after sliding to a five-week low versus the dollar when Reserve Bank Governor Graeme Wheeler said the central bank sold the so-called kiwi. The pound rose for a second day against the dollar as U.K. industrial production increased before the Bank of England announces its monetary-policy decision. The yen advanced as a decline in Asian stocks spurred demand for the relative safety of Japan’s currency. “The focus is on the Australian and New Zealand currencies given the data,� said Ian Stannard, head of European currency strategy at Morgan Stanley in London. “The labor-market data from Australia was much better than expected and that’s given the Aussie a bit of a boost. The impact of intervention on the kiwi is going to be quite limited.� Australia’s dollar jumped 0.6 percent at $1.0231 as of 6:46 a.m. in New York after sliding 1.4 percent during the previous three days. New Zealand’s currency strengthened 0.7 percent to 84.60 U.S. cents after dropping to 83.60 cents yesterday, the lowest since April 1. The yen gained 0.3 percent to 129.86 per euro and appreciated 0.3 percent to 98.70 per dollar. The euro was little changed at $1.3156. Australian Jobs The number of people employed in Australia rose by 50,100 in April from a month earlier, more than four times economists’ estimates, and the jobless rate unexpectedly fell to 5.5 percent, the statistics bureau said. New Zealand employers added a record 38,000 jobs last quarter and the unemployment dropped to 6.2 percent. Economists forecast 6.8 percent. Morgan Stanley is “cautious� regarding the Australian dollar’s gains due to the volatility of the nation’s labor data, Stannard said. The kiwi will remain supported given the central bank’s limited ability to stem its advance, he said. New Zealand’s currency has strengthened 2.1 percent against the dollar this year even as Wheeler threatened on Feb. 20 to intervene to limit gains. The RBNZ has kept its benchmark interest rate at a record low since March 2011. Australia’s dollar has tumbled 2.7 percent in the past month, the biggest decline of 10 developed-nation currencies tracked by Bloomberg Correlation-Weighted Indexes. The New Zealand dollar weakened 0.8 percent, while the pound was the best performer, gaining 1.9 percent. Pound Gains The pound climbed toward the highest in almost three months versus the dollar as the Office for National Statistics said Britain’s industrial output rose 0.7 percent in March. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg forecast a gain of 0.2 percent. The BOE’s (UKAPTARG) Monetary Policy Committee will keep its target for bond purchases at 375 billion pounds today, according to all except one of 44 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. The majority on the nine-member panel said last month that monetary policy was already “highly stimulatory,� according to minutes of their April 3-4 meeting released April 17. “Industrial production was better than expected and that caused a bit of a bounce higher� in the pound, said Kathleen Brooks, research director in London at Forex.com, a unit of online currency-trading company Gain Capital Holdings Inc. “We are not expecting too much from the Bank of England,� she said. The pound advanced 0.2 percent to $1.5570 after climbing to $1.5606 on May 1, the strongest since Feb. 13. Yen Rises The yen rose versus 11 of its 16 major counterparts as the MSCI Asia Pacific Index of shares declined 0.3 percent. Japan’s currency has fallen 19 percent against the dollar in the past six months as Bank of Japan increased stimulus that tends to debase a currency. The decline has stalled since the yen depreciated to 99.95 per dollar on April 11, the weakest level since October 2008. Sweden’s krona climbed for a third day as Finance Minister Anders Borg said the country would need to act should additional currency strength add to pain for exporters, reiterating comments he made earlier this week. “Given the slowdown in European markets, for us to stay competitive we need to think also about the currency,� Borg said in a Bloomberg Television interview in Cape Town, South Africa. “The market should set the price of the currency, it’s a free floating currency, but we can’t ignore if there’s a potential risk for excessive movements.� The krona gained 0.4 percent to 8.5294 per euro and strengthened 0.4 percent to 6.4850 against the dollar. To contact the reporters on this story: Mariko Ishikawa in Tokyo at mishikawa9@bloomberg.net; Lucy Meakin in London at lmeakin1@bloomberg.net. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Paul Dobson at pdobson2@bloomberg.net.

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