Last week gave very little in terms of new economic statistics from North America; most of the news focused on Europe and Asia. Overall, the statistics from Australia were relatively disappointing: retail sales stood at 0% and 10,000 jobs were lost, but the Australian dollar received support from the economic data from China. Chinese import, export and industrial production statistics overshot analysts’ expectations and suggest that the world’s second largest economy is stabilizing. In Canada we learned how difficult conditions have been in the job market, with 39,000 Canadians losing their jobs. Although this news made our loonie lose 50 points against the greenback, the pair spent most of the trading session in the red. Have a good week!
The Loonie
The FX markets were very active last week, despite a relatively slow week in economic news. The greenback lost ground against most major currencies. The euro even returned to the peak reached last June. As for the central banks, the Bank of Japan clearly restated its intention to maintain its expansionary monetary program, so as to energize an economy that has been stagnating for many years. Here's a striking number for you: Japan’s economy has been treading water for so long now that last week its national debt reached the one billion (1 x 1015) yen mark, driving the country’s debt to GDP ratio to 245% (estimated, end of 2013). A bit closer to home, last Friday we were waiting for Canadian job creation data for July. The market had predicted 10,000 new jobs, but unfortunately we learned that 39,400 jobs (the white line) were lost during the month.
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