The New Zealand dollar rose against the greenback and the euro before the release of Government figures expected to show the jobless rate fell in the second quarter, underlining the nation's relatively resilient economic performance.
The kiwi dollar gained to 81.49 US cents from 81.19 cents at 5pm in Wellington on Wednesday.
The trade-weighted index rose to 72.98 from 73.21.
The jobless rate fell to 6.5 percent in the second quarter from 6.7 percent three months earlier, according to a Reuters survey. The household labour force survey will be followed by the ANZ Roy Morgan consumer confidence survey.
"Should today's run of data prove about as positive as we expect, the NZD/USD should continue to draw support from a high and rising NZ-US interest rate differential," said Mike Jones, strategist at Bank of New Zealand.
New Zealand's official cash rate of 2.5 percent compares to a benchmark rate near zero in the US.
The gap between the yield on New Zealand 10-year government bonds and comparable 10-year US Treasuries is around 203 basis points.
The kiwi dollar traded at 77.07 Australian cents from 77.01 cents on Wednesday and climbed to 65.91 euro cents from 65.55 cents and gained to 63.94 Japanese yen from 63.77 yen.
NZN