Kiwi at new five-year high against Aussie THE New Zealand dollar has climbed to a new five-year high against its Australian counterpart after Reserve Bank governor Graeme Wheeler signalled steeper interest rate hikes next year. The kiwi climbed as high as 91.73 Australian cents, and was at 91.63 cents at 5pm in Wellington from 90.62 cents on Wednesday. The NZ currency pared its loss against the greenback after the RBNZ review, trading at 82.64 US cents at 5pm from 82.36 cents at 8am, little changed from 82.78 cents on Wednesday. Mr Wheeler kept the official cash rate at 2.5 per cent, as expected, and said the bank's forecasts suggest the key rate will rise 2.25 percentage points over the coming two-and-a-quarter years to head off any inflationary pressures. The statement was more aggressive than the market was expecting, and firmed up the view that New Zealand rates will get more attractive than their Australian counterparts, despite better than expected employment figures across the Tasman. "The kiwi/Aussie cross bore all the brunt of it," said Tim Kelleher, head of FX sales NZ, at ASB Institutional in Auckland. That cross is like a freight train at the moment. The kiwi slipped to 59.91 euro cents from 60.15 cents on Wednesday and to 84.67 yen from 84.92 yen. The trade-weighted index was little changed at 77.56 from 77.53,