The New Zealand dollar fell against the Australian dollar on Tuesday after figures showing a sharp jump in building approvals across the Tasman revived optimism about the strength of its economy.

The kiwi declined to A91.31c as at 5pm in Wellington from 91.54c at 8am and 91.43c Monday. It was at US71.79c from 71.78c.

Australian building approvals climbed 12 per cent in November from October, driven by a 31 per cent jump in apartment permits, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said.

Economists predicted approvals would drop 1 per cent. The Aussie dollar gained on the release, with the property market expected to cool this year after a dip in home prices in the 2017 December quarter.

“There was some minor volatility and was mostly around the Aussie data,” said Westpac senior strategist Imre Speizer.

“It was pretty strong and that caused some Aussie-kiwi buying. That’s probably the main interest of the day.”

The kiwi traded at 80.85 yen versus 81.24 yen Monday. The Japanese currency gained on headlines about less buying of long-end bonds by the Bank of Japan.

The kiwi remained firm against the euro, trading at 59.96 euro cents from 59.65c after the common currency corrected slightly as investors took profits from a recent strong run.

The trade-weighted index rose to 74.64 from 74.57 Monday and the kiwi was at 4.6661 Chinese yuan from 4.6569 yuan. The local currency traded at 52.87 British pence from 52.91 pence.

New Zealand’s two-year swap rate rose 1 basis point to 2.18 per cent while the 10-year swap rose 2 basis points to 3.14 per cent.

By Rebecca Howard