Australia, New Zealand dollars at fresh lows on EU debt concerns; China, EU officials watched

Concerns over Europe's debt risks felled Australian and New Zealand dollars - Asia Pacific's major risky currencies - on Monday, while growing fears that China may raise rates further dampened the sentiment.

Market is keen on any fresh developments regarding a debt-crisis that hit the economically weaker units of the European Monetary Union (EMU), which could help guide global investor interest to buy risky assets.

Many important EU officials, including Alex Weber of ECB, are scheduled to speak on the first day of the Euro Finance Week held November 15-19 in Frankfurt, Germany.

Media reports interpreted comments by key Ireland officials on Sunday as the nation was not ruling out possibilities of a rescue package by the EMU and it helped the euro but was not enough to push the kiwi and Aussie dollars higher.

Chinese data last week showed its prices were rising faster than what market had been expecting.

Data showed New Zealand's seasonally adjusted total retail sales rose 0.8 percent in the September quarter, slightly better than market expectations. The NZD rose on the release of the data but weaker Asian shares triggered a sell-off and pushed the currency below its previous settlement levels.

The New Zealand dollar fell to its weakest in more than a week against most major currencies.

Data from Australia showed its new vehicle sales fell 0.6 per cent in October after an overall increase of 0.9 percent the month before. Sales over the year to October were still in the black was up 3.3 percent.

The New Zealand dollar was at 0.7701 against the US dollar by around 0710 GMT, after falling to 0.7682 on the day, its weakest since November 3 and from its previous close of 0.7742. The kiwi currency is now 3.4 percent down from a multi-year high of 0.7973 hit earlier this month.

The Australian currency weakened to 0.9811 versus the greenback, which was 2-week low for the commodity currency. It was at 0.9823 0710 GMT, and is currently down 3.5 percent from a 28-year high of 1.0181 hit on November 4.

Technical analysis projects NZD/USD as targeting 0.7650 on the downside and the 14-day RSI on daily chart shows the pair is still slightly biased to the overbought zone. The AUD/USD is seeing 0.9723 as its first support, it 50-day moving average on daily chart.