After Canadian unemployment figures wildly exceeded economist’s forecasts the ‘Loonie’ was able to advance on its American rival for a second day.
The Canadian Dollar Exchange Rate was in the region of 0.9753 against the US Dollar as of 15:12 pm GMT
Yesterday figures compiled by Statistics Canada revealed that the nation’s global trade deficit fell to 237 million Canadian Dollars in January, and the Canadian Dollar was bolstered by the positive news. Now a much stronger-than-predicted increase in employment has pushed the ‘Loonie’ higher.
In February the Canadian economy added 50,700 jobs, over six times more than the 8,000 estimated by economists.
Gains were broadly spread across industries, with manufacturing being the only major category to post a decline.
And despite economists predicting that the nation’s jobless rate would climb to 7.1 it actually held at 7 per cent, a four-year low.
In response to the news economist Derek Holt commented: ‘If there is a fly in the ointment, it lies in the fact that a big job gain nonetheless coincided with no growth in paycheques for all workers combined during the month, as evidenced by flat wages and flat hours worked.’
The Canadian Dollar was further supported after similarly surprising US employment data.
US employment was shown to have gained by 236,000 in February, taking the unemployment rate from 7.9 per cent to 7.7 per cent and a five-year low.
After the reports were released the ‘Loonie’ climbed by 0.3 per cent on the US Dollar and strengthened against several of its other main currency rivals.
As currency analyst Dean Popplewell stated: ‘Job numbers look good in North America, and that could lead the way to encourage the market to add risk to their portfolios. Momentum should favour growth currencies in Canada and Mexico.’
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