Poloz speaks
The loonie gained ground Monday as West Texas Intermediate (WTI) rose by close to 80 cents U.S./barrel further to encouraging comments from Iraqi Oil Minister Jabbar al-Luaibi.
Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz gave a speech to the C.D. Howe Institute last night, in which he stated that the rising power of the service sector in the Canadian economy is stimulating the creation of high quality jobs and favouring a return to growth. For each job lost in the goods producing sector since 2001, around 30 have been created in services.
Mr. Poloz was also interviewed by Bloomberg TV Canada yesterday, and confirmed that the fourth quarter will fail to keep pace with the previous one. However the Canadian economy is generally progressing as expected. Mr. Poloz declined to offer any clues as to the economic impact of Donald Trump’s election.
The loonie’s direction today will be in large part influenced by the trend in crude oil prices and the tone of discussions between OPEC members in Vienna. Markets remain highly uncertain as to the outcome of the meeting.
