Australian, NZ dlrs outperform as economies escape lockdown

By Wayne Cole

SYDNEY, Oct 28 (Reuters) - The Australian and New Zealand dollars gained on the euro on Wednesday as the risk of lockdowns in Europe contrasted with open economies at home, while soft Australian inflation figures supported expectations of near-term policy easing.

The euro dipped to a one-week low of A$1.6531 EURAUD=, a long way from its recent top at A$1.6827. The Aussie held steady on its U.S. counterpart at $0.7129 AUD=D3, just short of chart resistance at $0.7158.

The kiwi dollar was firm at $0.6700 NZD=D3, having touched a five-week high of $0.6724 overnight.

The euro had taken a knock on reports France was considering locking down for a month as new coronavirus cases hit records across the continent.

That comes as Australia's second largest city, Melbourne, re-opens after months of lockdown have driven new cases down into single figures and left the entire country open for business.

"The economy is recovering from the lows of the COVID-19 recession. The recovery will be long and uneven, but it is clearly underway," said CBA's head of global economics Stephen Halmarick.

"Bottom-line is that Australia should continue to outperform most other major OECD economies in recovering."

To support activity, Halmarick expected the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) would cut interest rates to 0.1% at its November policy meeting next week and commit to buying around A$100 billion ($71 billion) in five- to 10-year bonds.

There was ample scope for such quantitative easing given data out on Wednesday showed consumer price inflation ticked up to just 0.7% in the third quarter, far below the RBA's target band of 2-3%.

Core inflation was not much higher at an annual 1.2% and the central bank itself has forecast only a slight pick up to around 1.5% by the middle of 2022.

The subdued report helped lift 10-year bond futures YTCc1 2 ticks to 99.220, implying an yield of 0.78% and bang in line with U.S. Treasury yields.

Three-year bond futures YTTc1 held at 99.840, with the market all but certain the RBA will lower its yield target to 0.1% next week.

($1 = 1.4027 Australian dollars)

(Editing by Lincoln Feast.)

((Wayne.Cole@thomsonreuters.com; 612 9171 7144; Reuters Messaging: wayne.cole.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))

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