Canadian dollar adds to weekly decline despite sharp GDP gain

TORONTO: The Canadian dollar weakened to a nine-day low against its US counterpart on Friday, as investors doubted that strong domestic GDP data would make a difference at an upcoming Bank of Canada policy decision and after hawkish comments by Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh.

The loonie was trading 0.3 percent lower at 1.39 per US dollar, or 71.94 US cents, after touching its weakest intraday level since August 19 at 1.3908.

For the week, the currency was headed for a 1 percent decline after the US imposed new 50 percent tariffs on USD20 billion of Canadian imports. It follows four straight weekly gains.

Canada’s economy grew at an annualized rate of 3.3 percent in the second quarter, after a revised 0.3 percent increase in the first quarter, aided by a strong jump in exports and solid domestic demand.

“While impressive overall, there’s not a lot to seriously move the needle bigger picture for the BoC,” Douglas Porter, chief economist at BMO Capital Markets, said in a note.

“The BoC will likely wait and see how the economy handles the latest tariff spat - and how the tussle develops - before judging where rates need to go next,” Porter said.

According to a Reuters poll of economists, the BoC will keep its benchmark interest rate at 2.25 percent on Wednesday and leave it unchanged for at least another year.

The US central bank will “have work to do” if policymakers don’t get the confidence they need that inflation is heading down to 2 percent, Warsh said in the keynote speech to the Fed’s Jackson Hole economic symposium in Wyoming.

“Jackson Hole is likely to shape trends in FX in the early part of next week at least, with the hawkish tilt to Warsh’s comments easing recent headwinds that have weighed on the USD,” Shaun Osborne and Eric Theoret, strategists at Scotiabank, said in a note.

The US dollar was up 0.5 percent against a basket of major currencies.