Once again, the economy is back in the spotlight for Canada. Worries about the Canadian economy have been increasing recently, and the latest manufacturing sales data isn’t helping matters. With the latest plunge, the loonie is heading lower against its counterparts.
December 2012 manufacturing sales dropped by 3.1 per cent. This was a big surprise, since many analysts had expected that the drop would be limited to 0.8 per cent. Even though the figure for November was revised slightly upward, October’s figure was revised downward.
This is yet another piece of disappointing economic data to come out of Canada recently. The employment situation has been difficult recently, and that has contributed to concerns as well. There are also expectations that the Bank of Canada will cut rates in the near future.
All of this is contributing to weakness for the Canadian dollar. It’s also not helping that oil prices are falling back again. With everything, it appears that economic concerns are catching up with the formerly solid Canadian economy, and the loonie is heading lower as a result.
At 16:42 GMT USD/CAD is up to 1.0067 from the open at 1.0010. EUR/CAD is also higher, moving up to 1.3444 from the open at 1.3378. GBP/CAD is up to 1.5626 from the open at 1.5511.
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