Final New Zealand election results could bring jitters for NZD at the open

It’s still all to play for in the New Zealand government race

The final election numbers were printed on Saturday and the ruling National Party remains out in front but still short of a majority needed to remain in power.

The results

National Party 44.4%
Labour Party 36.9 %
New Zeland First Party 7.2%
Green 6.3%

How does that leave things?

61 seats are needed for a majority
The National Party have 56 seats
Labour/Green coalitions 54 seats
New Zealand First Party 9 seats
The Act Party 1 seat

The NZ First Party is in the hot seat regarding being able to provide enough seats to either the National or Labour but it’s all looking very messy, and that’s going to be something that could see early nervous trading in the kiwi at the open. I struggle to get my head around UK politics most of the time so I’ll leave the nuances of this one to Andrew Geddis at RNZ, who has a great review of how things stand now.

Discussions between the parties were touted for today, and they’ll probably drag on into the week. NZDUSD closed around the 0.7090 mark on Friday.