SINGAPORE, Dec 27 Reuters The dollar moved broadly lower on Tuesday, while Australia39;s and New Zealand39;s currencies climbed with a rise in risk appetite after China said it would scrap its COVID19 quarantine rule for inbound travellers a major step in reopening its borders.

The New Zealand dollar surged more than 0.5 in early Asia trade and was last 0.28 higher at 0.6288, while the Aussie gained 0.27 to 0.6750 in mostly thin trading during the yearend holiday season. The two currencies are often used as liquid proxies for the Chinese yuan.

The offshore yuan rose more than 0.1 to 6.9681 per dollar.

China will stop requiring inbound travellers to go into quarantine on arrival starting Jan. 8, the National Health Commission said on Monday, even as COVID cases spike. At the same time, Beijing downgraded regulations for managing COVID cases to the less strict Category B from the toplevel Category A.

There seems to be no letup in the pace of relaxing COVID restrictions despite the surge in COVID cases in the mainland, said Christopher Wong, a currency strategist at OCBC. This perhaps demonstrates Chinese policymakers39; resolve to full reopening.

In addition, there was news of China potentially taking extraordinary measures to support growth, Wong said.

Elsewhere, sterling rose 0.12 to 1.2082, while the euro edged 0.12 higher to 1.0647.

Against a basket of currencies, the U.S. dollar index slipped 0.06 to 104.04.

Data released on Friday showed that U.S. consumer…