TORONTO (Reuters) – The Canadian dollar surged by the most since June 2020 against its U.S. counterpart on Wednesday and the Toronto stock market rebounded as investors welcomed a move by the Bank of Canada to dial back emergency support for the economy.
The loonie strengthened 0.9% to 1.2495 per U.S. dollar, or 80.03 U.S. cents. Canada‘s main stock index ended 0.5% higher at 19,143.25, clawing back some of its decline over the previous two days.
“I think we are seeing positive sentiment toward the Canadian economy coming off the comments from the Bank of Canada today,” said Colin Cieszynski, chief market strategist at SIA Wealth Management.
The Bank of Canada signaled that it could start hiking interest rates in late 2022, as it sharply boosted its outlook for the Canadian economy and cut the pace of bond purchases to C$3 billion per week from C$4 billion.
The central bank began a large-scale bond buying program last year to support the economy during the coronavirus crisis.
The reduction in stimulus puts Canada‘s central bank at odds with some other major central banks, such as the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank, that have said they will maintain or even increase the pace of bond buying.
“It makes sense that Canada might be one of the ones to start scaling back first … our economic numbers have been quite positive,” Cieszynski said.
Canada‘s annual inflation rate doubled to 2.2% in March, Statistics Canada said, while the average of the Bank of Canada‘s three core measures was 1.9%, up from 1.8%.
The Canadian dollar, which touched its strongest intraday level since March 18 at 1.2455, was able to rally despite pressure on the price of oil, one of Canada‘s major exports.
U.S. crude oil futures settled 2.1% lower at $61.35 a barrel amid concerns that surging COVID-19 cases in India will drive down fuel demand in the world’s third-biggest oil importer.
Still, the Toronto Stock Exchange’s energy sector advanced 0.9%, while the materials group was up 1.1%, bolstered by higher gold prices. Last Friday, the TSX notched a record high at 19,380.68.
Canadian government bond yields were higher across the curve. The 2-year rose 2.2 basis points to 0.317%, near the top if its range since the start of the year.
(Reporting by Fergal Smith; Editing by Kirsten Donovan and David Gregorio)
OTTAWA – The parliamentary budget officer says the federal government likely failed to keep its deficit below its promised $40 billion cap in the last fiscal year.
However the PBO also projects in its latest economic and fiscal outlook today that weak economic growth this year will begin to rebound in 2025.
The budget watchdog estimates in its report that the federal government posted a $46.8 billion deficit for the 2023-24 fiscal year.
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland pledged a year ago to keep the deficit capped at $40 billion and in her spring budget said the deficit for 2023-24 stayed in line with that promise.
The final tally of the last year’s deficit will be confirmed when the government publishes its annual public accounts report this fall.
The PBO says economic growth will remain tepid this year but will rebound in 2025 as the Bank of Canada’s interest rate cuts stimulate spending and business investment.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.
OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says the level of food insecurity increased in 2022 as inflation hit peak levels.
In a report using data from the Canadian community health survey, the agency says 15.6 per cent of households experienced some level of food insecurity in 2022 after being relatively stable from 2017 to 2021.
The reading was up from 9.6 per cent in 2017 and 11.6 per cent in 2018.
Statistics Canada says the prevalence of household food insecurity was slightly lower and stable during the pandemic years as it fell to 8.5 per cent in the fall of 2020 and 9.1 per cent in 2021.
In addition to an increase in the prevalence of food insecurity in 2022, the agency says there was an increase in the severity as more households reported moderate or severe food insecurity.
It also noted an increase in the number of Canadians living in moderately or severely food insecure households was also seen in the Canadian income survey data collected in the first half of 2023.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct 16, 2024.
OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says manufacturing sales in August fell to their lowest level since January 2022 as sales in the primary metal and petroleum and coal product subsectors fell.
The agency says manufacturing sales fell 1.3 per cent to $69.4 billion in August, after rising 1.1 per cent in July.
The drop came as sales in the primary metal subsector dropped 6.4 per cent to $5.3 billion in August, on lower prices and lower volumes.
Sales in the petroleum and coal product subsector fell 3.7 per cent to $7.8 billion in August on lower prices.
Meanwhile, sales of aerospace products and parts rose 7.3 per cent to $2.7 billion in August and wood product sales increased 3.8 per cent to $3.1 billion.
Overall manufacturing sales in constant dollars fell 0.8 per cent in August.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2024.
