The poor economic data continues to come from Canada as the report today showed that the Canadian retail sales unexpectedly decreased, signaling that Canada’s economic growth is losing momentum and driving the Canadian dollar down.

The retails sales dropped 0.1 percent in July, after there was no change in the month earlier. The actual reading was far worse than forecasts promised (0.5 percent growth). Today’s data, together with yesterday’s report about the falling consumer prices, undermined investors’ confidence in the strength of Canada’s economy and currency.

The news outside Canada weren’t helping the loonie either, as the data from the US and the decision of the Federal Reserve to keep the US interest rates at their record low levels show the economic weakness of the US, Canada’s biggest trading partner. It looks everything is against the Canadian currency, making it the worst performer among other major currencies today.

USD/CAD went up from 1.0266 to 1.0331 today as of 16:58 GMT after it declined to the intraday low of 1.0191. EUR/CAD jumped from 1.3615 to 1.3813.

If you have any questions, comments or opinions regarding the Canadian Dollar, feel free to post them using the commentary form below.