The ‘Loonie’ climbed by 0.5 per cent against the ‘Greenback’, achieving a 7-week high, following the release of Canada’s New Home Price Index.
The Canadian Dollar Exchange Rate was in the region of 0.9912 against the US Dollar as of 14:11 pm GMT
The Index showed that new home prices gained by 2.1 per cent in February from the same period of 2012.
Although this was a slightly smaller gain than the 2.2 per cent rate recorded in January, Calgary posted its most significant gain for nearly six years.
Month on month, house prices were 0.2 per cent higher in March. In February they rose 0.1 per cent.
This report follows a positive housing starts report, released earlier this week. That data detailed an increase in housing starts in March from February’s 183,207 units to a seasonally adjusted 184,028.
Following the publication of these latest housing figures currency strategist Camilla Sutton asserted: ‘We have a lot of bad news baked into Canada, but we don’t have a lot of good news, so I think we’ve already seen the bad-news story play out in terms of what’s been priced in. For Canada there are a lot of things that should end up supporting the Canadian Dollar as we get into next year and even late this year, that’s everything from a housing market that doesn’t collapse as some people feel to oil pricing that’s already turned much more favourably for the Canadian economy.’
The Canadian Dollar also continued to benefit from the Bank of Japan’s decision to double stimulus.
The BOJ’s unprecedented policy action has boosted the outlook of commodity-driven nations like Canada, and their currency’s have risen as a result.
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