On Thursday, the New Zealand dollar was trading higher as better-than-anticipated service data for the first quarter and remarks from central bank Governor improved hopes of a rise in the Official Cash Rate in June.

Reserve Bank of New Zealand Governor, Alan Bollard previously said that the country's economic revival will permit financial policy stimulus to be removed.

The nation's seasonally amended unemployment rate dropped to 6.0% in the first quarter from a modified rate of 7.1% in the fourth quarter, lesser than the median 7.2% estimate in a Dow Jones Newswires survey of 11 economists.

Murray Hindley, a Foreign Exchange Manager at ANZ, said, "With Bollard comments and strong employment data, the New Zealand dollar has been stronger on all the crosses, including the U. S. dollar, and one may expect that we will see some further strength overnight".

The New Zealand dollar shifted to US$0.7219 from US$0.7191 after Bollard's said that New Zealand's recoup from the global recession is moving into a new, less weak stage that will allow fiscal policy stimulus to be removed. It consequently got a boost up from the first quarter service statistics.

Mike Jones, a Strategist at Bank of NZ, said that both offered strong data that the financial authority will start increasing rates in June.