The Canadian Dollar (CAD) strengthened against the already weakened Pound (GBP) on Friday after a revised employment report showed that the economy created more jobs than forecast in July.
Statistics Canada took the unusual step of retracting an earlier jobs report after it said that there had been errors with the data.
The agency said that the error resulted from a major redesign of its market-moving Labour Force Survey that occurs every 10 years when one program was not updated, which it calls a human error. The mistake resulted in Statistics Canada overestimating full-time job losses.
In its revised report, Statistics Canada said that the North American nation’s economy created 41,700 jobs, smashing forecasts for an increase of 20,000 and was a sharp reversal from the decline of 9,400 recorded in June.
The revisions cut full-time job losses to 18,100 from 59,700 and raised the increase in jobs created in the province of Ontario to 39,500 from 15,100.
The gains were led by 46,100 new jobs in education and 17,100 in information, culture and recreation workers.
‘The data was a totally different picture in terms of the employment conditions in July compared to the initial release. Year to date, the gains in employment are still fairly modest. Going forward, hopefully we’ll see sustained increases, but at the moment certainly these revised July numbers, it’s showing a more encouraging picture, though we’re not out of the woods yet,’ Said Paul Ferley, assistant chief economist at Royal Bank of Canada.
Despite the revised and improved figure, the country’s unemployment rate remained at 7.0% in July, in line with economist expectations and was down from the 7.1% figure recorded in June.
Also supporting the ‘Loonie’ was the publication of a separate report, which showed that manufacturing sales increased by 0.6% in June to a total gain of $52 billion, the fifth consecutive gain seen in as many months. The increase was because of an increase in the sale of non-durable goods such as petrol, coal and chemicals.
A reduction in tensions over the standoff between Russia and Ukraine also offered support to commodity and emerging market currencies.
Russia allowed Ukrainian officials to inspect a Russian aid convoy waiting at the border and allowed the Red Cross led aid mission into the besieged city of Luhansk. The move dispelled concerns that the aid mission was just a ruse by Russia to provide aid to Pro-Russian rebel forces.
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,
,Pound Sterling,0.5514 ,
Canadian Dollar,,US Dollar,0.9204 ,
Canadian Dollar,,Euro,0.6873 ,
Canadian Dollar,,Australian Dollar,0.9882,
Canadian Dollar,,New Zealand Dollar,1.0802 ,
US Dollar,,Canadian Dollar,1.0985 ,
Pound Sterling,,Canadian Dollar,1.8136 ,
Euro,,Canadian Dollar,1.4569 ,
Australian Dollar,,Canadian Dollar,1.0117 ,
New Zealand Dollar,,Canadian Dollar,0.9252 ,
[/table]
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