AUD/NZD slumps to fresh multi-week lows near 1.0770

• AUD/NZD is falling for the fifth straight day on Friday.
• NZD gathers strength against its rivals following the finance minister's comments.
• AUD/NZD is down more than 200 pips for the week.

The AUD/NZD pair closed the first four days of the week in the negative territory and extended its slide after breaking below 1.0800 on Friday. As of writing, the pair was trading at its lowest level since early August at 1.0775, losing 0.42% on a daily basis.

NZD capitalizes on finance minister's hawkish remarks

Earlier in the day, New Zealand's finance minister, Grant Robertson, said that the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) is unlikely to make any changed in the policy rate until March. Robertson further noted that a stronger-than-expected recovery in the economy would allow the RBNZ to stay on hold.

On the back of this hawkish commentary, the kiwi gathered strength against its major rivals. In fact, the NZD/USD pair climbed to its highest level since April 2019 at 0.6798 during the Asian session.

Earlier in the week, the report from Australia showed that the Unemployment Rate in August dropped to 6.8% from 7.5% in July but the positive impact of this upbeat data on the AUD remained short-lived. 

Technical levels to watch for