Friday, March 04, 2005

Twenty years ago... my doesn't time fly when you are having fun!

Twenty years ago today -

David Lange debated nuclear deterrence with Jerry Falwell... "I can smell the uranium on your breath".

New Zealand floated its currency on the international market for the first time...

From the NZ Herald
Before the float, New Zealand used a variety of exchange rate mechanisms, including a crawling peg between June 1979 and June 1982, and fixing the exchange rate against a basket of currencies between 1982 and 1985.

Under these arrangements, the Reserve Bank acted as a residual buyer or seller, trading foreign exchange in whatever quantities were necessary to support the exchange rate.

The amounts traded are much bigger now than 20 years ago. Then, a $200 million deal would dominate the market on the day and affect the value of the kiwi.

Now four times that amount is needed to move the rate.

The kiwi is now the 11th most traded currency in the world, with daily turnover in the New Zealand market of around $7.5 billion.

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