Canadian dollar and business outlook

By Commodity News Service Canada

WINNIPEG, Feb. 29 (CNS Canada) – The Canadian dollar was holding near unchanged Monday morning, as the currency took a bit of a breather following last week’s rally.

At 8:51 CST Monday morning the Canadian dollar was at US$0.7402 or C$1.3510 which compares with Friday’s North American close of US$0.7400 or C$1.3514.

A lack of fresh direction for the global economy following a meeting of G20 finance ministers over the weekend was said to be putting some pressure on the Canadian currency.

But on the other side, advances in crude oil did lend some support.

In domestic data, Canada’s current account deficit widened to C$15.38 billion in the fourth quarter, from C$15.31 billion the previous quarter, reported Statistics Canada.

Canada’s Industrial Product Price Index was up by 0.5% in January, while the Raw Materials Price Index was down by 0.4%, according to StatsCan data.

The TSX was stronger, up 42.95 points at 8:51 CST to sit at 12,841.40.