The New Zealand dollar has continued to appreciate since the last ASB Kiwi Dollar Barometer, despite speculation the Reserve Bank will cut the official cash rate again.
ASB economist Daniel Snowden said a delay in the lifting of United States interest rates supported the NZ dollar/US dollar and offshore rate cuts continued to make the kiwi attractive.
''This resilience could be one of the drivers for the lift in forecasts by respondents.''
Expectations for the dollar in December were US71c, up from US66.6c.
Despite the lift, respondents still expected the dollar to depreciate in the next 12 months and the latest barometer showed businesses were expecting the dollar to fall to US68.7c in the next 12 months, he said.
Importers remained the most optimistic on the dollar, with exporters at the other end.
Given the different needs of the various firms, the contrast was no surprise and frequently occurred in the survey, Mr Snowden said.
Splitting by firm size showed the $1 million to $30 million group of businesses was the most optimistic and the $30 million to $150 million group the least upbeat on the dollar.
The latest ASB forecasts were revised in the wake of the United Kingdom's vote in late June to leave the European Union, he said.
Three months after Britain's vote to leave the EU, fears in currency markets of a ''hard Brexit'' driving an exodus of banks from London have knocked sterling to within sight of its weakest levels in decades, Reuters reported.
It had been a rollercoaster ride for investors and companies worried by or speculating on the value of the pound. It slumped by more than US20c in the days following the shock June 23 vote but recovered around a third of that by early this month.
That broadly reflected shifts in expectations of how the economy would deal with the fallout from talks that might deprive Britain of its membership of the single market as the quid pro quo for imposing controls on immigration.
Mr Snowden said the New Zealand dollar had held up better than anticipated after the Brexit vote. Even so, the long-term outlook for the NZ dollar to sit at about US72c in 12 months' time still held, despite the outlook for a lower OCR in New Zealand and hikes from the US Federal Reserve.
In the latest barometer, ASB asked special questions focused on hedging using foreign exchange options (FX options). FX options now attracted a greater percentage of hedging transactions but there had been chances since 2014, Mr Snowden said.
''The data again suggests evolution in FX hedging. When aggregated across all firms, the majority have now looked into using options, albeit only just at 50.7%.''
Nearly 36% of all firms had investigated using options but actively decided against it. Of those remaining, 11.2% had facilities in place and were using them, up from 7.7% two years ago.
The main reason for not using options remained one of cost, cited by nearly half of respondents, he said.
Some way back was a lack of understanding at 15.7%, down from 19% two years ago. The accounting treatment for options was considered to be the main reason by 14%, similar to 2014.
