NZD/USD declines towards 0.6200 as China Retail Sales plummet to -11.1%

• NZD/USD has plunged to near 0.6230 as China’s Retail Sales underperformed.
• The yearly Retail Sales landed at -11.1%, lower than the forecasts of 6%.
• This week, investors will focus on Fed Powell’s speech and US Retail Sales.

The NZD/USD pair has plunged to near 0.6230 after China’s National Bureau of Statistics reported the Retail Sales. Underperformance has been observed from the economic data as yearly Retail Sales have landed at -11.1%, principally down from the forecasts of -6% and the prior print of -3.5%.

It is worth noting that kiwi is one of the largest trading partners to China and underperformance from the dragon economy poses a serious impact. Lower-than-expected Retail Sales from China have forced the market participants to dump kiwi. Meanwhile, “China’s Stats Bureau Spokesman expects economic operations to improve in May,” per Reuters. The views have arrived after the release of Retail Sales data. Apart from Retail Sales, Industrial Production data has slipped to -2.9%, lower than the consensus and the former figure of 0.7% and 5% respectively.

On the dollar front, the US dollar index (DXY) is trading lackluster in the Asian session. A marginal range of 104.42-104.67 has been recorded yet and a continuation of a rangebound performance is expected later due to the light economic calendar on Monday. This week, a speech from Federal Reserve (Fed) chair Jerome Powell and US Retail Sales will hog the limelight. The monthly US Retail Sales are seen at 0.7%, higher than the previous print of 0.5%. Both events are due on Tuesday.