Commodity currencies such as the Australian and New Zealand dollars are coming under pressure, despite weathering the early stages of the global slowdown and credit crunch extremely well, says Hans Redeker, global head of FX strategy at BNP Paribas.

He notes that the Reserve Bank of Australia has acknowledged that the country’s economy is feeling the negative effects of the global credit crunch and that a recent NZ Treasury report suggests that the New Zealand economy is already in a recession.