Canada’s gross domestic product grew in March more than was expected. Yet that brought no relief to the Canadian dollar as the currency dropped today, dragged down by the slump of crude oil prices.
GDP increased 0.5% in March following no change in the previous month, exceeding the analysts’ median projection of 0.3%. The report said that the growth was broad-based across all the industries:
Growth was widespread across goods-producing and service-producing industries.
Yet the manufacturing sector was of special note, contributing the most to economic expansion:
The manufacturing sector was the largest contributor to the growth in GDP in March, growing 1.6% and more than offsetting a 1.0% contraction in February.
All that had little impact on the loonie, though, as it has dropped. The currency has strong correlation to moves of crude oil prices, and those moves were mostly to the downside lately. The current trading session was not an exception, with the commodity posting huge losses.
USD/CAD jumped from 1.3457 to 1.3515 as of 18:16 GMT today. EUR/CAD jumped from 1.5049 to 1.5186. CAD/JPY slid from 82.32 to 81.84 after rallying to 82.60 intraday.
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