By Wayne Cole and Ana Nicolaci da Costa
SYDNEY/WELLINGTON, Aug 4 (Reuters) - The Australian and New Zealand dollars were poised to snap their three-week winning streaks on Friday as the rapid pace of recent gains and the proximity of major chart resistance encouraged a bout of profit-taking.
The Aussie dollar AUD=D4 eased back to $0.7951 having again met offers above the 80-cent barrier, down 0.2 percent for the week. It touched a two-year top of $0.8066 last week after climbing over 7 percent in just two months.
The kiwi dollar NZD=D4 likewise edged back to $0.7428, after repeatedly running into resistance above 75 cents. It was down 1.1 percent for the week, on course for its first weekly fall after three weeks of gains, having hit its highest in over two years last week at $0.7557.
The Aussie drew some support from another upbeat economic outlook from the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), which forecasts growth picking up to around 3 percent for the next two years.
The central bank did caution that further gains in the currency would threaten the outlook, but felt current levels were not a major drag. RBA's confidence was likely bolstered by data on Friday showing real retail sales rose a solid 1.5 percent in the second quarter, the biggest increase in four years.
"Retail trade makes up about 30 percent of household spending, so today's numbers point to decent growth in the June quarter," said Kristina Clifton, an economist at CBA.
"This is a good outcome as there has been some questions to how household spending would hold up given some of the headwinds they are facing."
The rebound in consumption in turn reinforced expectations that economic growth as a whole bounced back in the quarter after a disappointing start to the year.
In New Zealand, the kiwi was undermined by a sharp drop in local bond yields which were down over 7 basis points at the long end of the curve 0#NZTSY= .
The move tracked a fall in yields globally after the Bank of England struck a cautious tone at its policy meeting, offering an economic outlook tainted by the impact of Brexit. less hawkish than expected Bank of England has...driven global bond rates lower," BNZ said in a research note.
Yields were also under pressure on the home front ahead of next week's Reserve Bank of New Zealand meeting.
"Expectations are centred on the RBNZ delivering a neutral statement with some dovish overtones, reflecting the likely downward revision to inflation forecasts," BNZ added.
Australian government bond futures were restrained by the stronger domestic data, and the three-year bond contract YTTc1 stayed flat at 98.060. The 10-year contract YTCc1 edged up 3 ticks to 97.3650. (Editing by Lisa Twaronite & Shri Navaratnam)