New Zealand Prime Minister (PM) Chris Hipkins on Monday called cyclone Gabrielle New Zealand's biggest natural disaster this century at a news conference announcing an emergency NZ$300 million ($187.08 million) cyclone relief package.

PM Hipkins said: "The required investment to reconnect our communities and future-proof our nation's infrastructure is going to be significant and it will require hard decisions.”

Earlier on, the country’s Finance Minister Grant Robertson said the total cost to the government could be similar to the NZ$13.5 billion (USD8.42 billion) it spent rebuilding Christchurch after the devastating 2011 earthquake, per Reuters.

Market reaction

At the time of writing, the NZD/USD pair is trading flat at 0.6242, having recovered from lows of 0.6227.