Canada’s dollar touched the strongest level in more than a week after the country’s central bank removed the word “neutral” from its policy statement, fueling bets officials are more open to raising interest rates.
The currency fluctuated at almost a five-year low as crude oil, the nation’s biggest export, dropped. The Bank of Canada left the benchmark interest rate unchanged at 1 percent, as forecast by all 24 economists surveyed by Bloomberg.
“What we see is a statement that is less dovish than we anticipated,” Bipan Rai, director of foreign-exchange strategy at CIBC World Markets Inc., said by phone from Toronto. “The removal of the word neutral, I think that caught many in the market a bit off guard.”
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