Camera lens for portrait shooting?

I want to buy a camera lens that is of a reasonable price (around $200).
I have a Nikon D5000, and I want a lens that has a strong and positive review for portrait photos.
Either that, or a high quality macro lens (same price range.)

Currently, I have the AF-S NIKKOR 18-55mm 1:3.5-5.6G lens (came with the camera.)

Any ideas?

You can do portraits with the lens you have but I suggest something in the 75mm or better range. See "Ken Rockwell's recommended cameras" page for more suggestions.

You may go with 50mm 1.8 lens from nikon. The best you can take for low money. Of course if you can afford go with 1.4. However for me is to expensive.

You won't get any of those for that price- you would need to be paying significantly more for a good portrait or macro lens.
Ideally you would want one with a longer focal length than you have, such as an 85mm prime or 105mm prime but both of these are out of your price range. Maybe consider getting the 55-200MM F/4-5.6 AF-S VR DX, it's cheap and you could use it for portraits if you wanted. Macro won't be much use with this though.
If you want cheap macro, maybe look at extension tubes which are a means of making your existing lens focus at a shorter distance. The Kenko ones are good but they are more expensive than others you may find!
Also, you may be interested in the 50mm f/1.8- a bit short to be an ideal portrait lens but should serve its purpose OK.
Hope some of that helps!

The camera is a crop camera, so you would do well with a 50mm prime lens.

Nikon has a 50mm f/1.8 for less than $200.

Nice portrait lenses are

35mm/50mm/85mm f/1.8 & f/1.4 depending on your distance needs.

They have got this new macro lens 40mm which is really cheap and nice. You can use that for some nice portraits… Http://imaging.nikon.com/lineup/lens/specoalpurpose/micro/af-s_dx_micro40mmf_28g/index.htm