WELLINGTON (Reuters) - New Zealand's prime minister said on Tuesday she had not seen official gross domestic product figures, which are due later this week, clarifying earlier comments that investors interpreted as an advance indication of a strong result.
The New Zealand dollar rose as high as $0.6596 from $0.6574 after Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said in a radio interview that she was given a "hint" on economic data and that she was "pretty pleased with it".
Ardern's office did not immediately respond to Reuters's request for comment, but told the New Zealand Herald newspaper the Prime Minister had "made a mistake" and not been referring to the figures due out on Thursday.
"The market was expecting a bumper number prior to this and this just really sealed it," said Martin Rudings, a Wellington-based dealer at OM Financial.
Economists polled by Reuters on average are expecting quarterly growth to pick up the pace to 0.7 percent in the three months to the end of June, up from 0.5 percent the previous quarter. [nL3N1W20OC]
The kiwi quickly gave up its gains after Ardern's office said she did not have access to the Statistics New Zealand's second quarter figures, which are due on Thursday.
The currency fell to as low as $0.6559 after U.S. President Donald Trump said he would impose 10 percent tariffs on about $200 billion worth of Chinese imports. [nL2N1W319C]
In her clarification, Ardern told reporters she was referring to Treasury financial statements for June, not the statistics agency figures that the radio interviewer had referred to.
"I accept I was talking about one thing and he was talking about another," she told reporters, according to the New Zealand Herald.
Statistics New Zealand chief statistician Liz MacPherson also said in an emailed statement that there were "absolutely not" any hints given to the prime minister about the data.
She said statistics such as GDP are under strict embargo rules and that the figures are never given to anyone ahead of the official release.
New Zealand's economic growth is expected to have accelerated in the second quarter, driven by a recovery in agricultural production and exports though concerns about business confidence are expected to keep central bank rates low.
(Reporting by Charlotte Greenfield; Editing by Sam Holmes)
