The Canadian Dollar firmed against the Pound and US Dollar on Thursday after a report showed that new house prices in the North American nation made the biggest jump in 20 months in January.
According to Statistics Canada, new house prices rose by 0.3% in the first month of the year due to strong rises in property in the western prairie region of the country. The increase was greater than the 0.1% rise forecast by economists and was the largest gain recorded since May 2012.
In the oil producing region of Calgary house prices jumped by 1.3% due to labour and material costs. The Canadian government, which has intervened in the mortgage market four times since 2008 to cool the sector, has long expressed concerns the housing market might overheat though it thinks a soft landing is more likely.
Overall, house price rises were recorded in five of the twenty one metropolitan regions, was unchanged in seven, and down in nine.
Further gains for the ‘Loonie’ were restrained due to a separate report showing that Canadian industrial capacity use rose less than forecast in the fourth quarter of 2013.
Also weighing upon the currency are ongoing market concerns over the possibility that the Chinese economy is slowing down and the political standoff between the west and Russia over Ukraine.
Riskier currency’s also caught a bit of a break earlier in the session as economists said that the recent declines had been overdone.
Canadian Dollar (CAD) Exchange Rates
[table width=”100%” colwidth=”50|50|50|50|50″ colalign=”left|left|left|left|left”]
Currency, ,Currency,Rate ,
Canadian Dollar,
,US Dollar,0.9038 ,
Canadian Dollar,, Pound Sterling,0.5416 ,
Canadian Dollar,,Euro,0.6482 ,
Canadian Dollar,,Australian Dollar,0.9942 ,
Canadian Dollar,,New Zealand Dollar,1.0561 ,
Pound Sterling,,Canadian Dollar,1.8474 ,
[/table]
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