Canadian Dollar And Business Outlook

By Commodity News Service Canada

WINNIPEG, April 16 – The Canadian dollar was weaker relative to its US counterpart Wednesday morning, as the currency reacted to the latest interest rate announcement from the Bank of Canada.

At 9:29 CDT Wednesday morning the Canadian dollar was at US$0.9733 or C$1.0274 which compares with Tuesday’s North American close of US$0.9799, or C$1.0205.

The Bank of Canada left its key overnight rate unchanged at 1.0%, as had been widely anticipated. The Bank also indicated that rates would likely remain unchanged for “a period of time, after which some modest withdrawl will likely be required.” The Bank cut its core inflation predictions, with the target of 2.0% now not expected until 2015.

In other domestic data, Canadian home prices rose 0.4% in March, compared to the previous month, according to the Teranet-National Bank Composite House Price Index, marking the first rise in six months.

The TSX was weaker Wednesday morning, down 57.76 points at 9:29 CDT to sit at 12,062.16.