What it is
The currency of Canada, a large producer of oil, natural gas, minerals, timber and grain whose trade is bound closely to the United States.
Who issues it
The Bank of Canada issues the Canadian dollar and sets the target for the overnight rate. Its inflation target is agreed with the federal government and renewed periodically.
How it is commonly described
- Commodity-linked
- Issued by an economy whose exports are led by raw materials, so it is often read beside their prices.
Energy is prominent among Canada’s exports, so the currency is often read beside the price of crude oil. Most Canadian exports go to the United States, which ties it to the American economy as well.
These are descriptions people use, drawn from how the currency has commonly behaved. They are not promises about how it will behave.
What typically moves it
- The price of crude oil and other raw materials Canada exports
- The strength of the US economy, which buys most of what Canada sells abroad
- Bank of Canada policy, and the gap between Canadian and US interest rates
- Risk appetite in world markets
These are the things people who follow this currency usually watch. They explain how the market works; they do not say what the exchange rate will do next.
The scheduled releases to know
- Interest rate announcement and the Monetary Policy ReportPublished by Bank of CanadaExplainer: Rates
- Labour Force SurveyPublished by Statistics CanadaExplainer: Jobless rate
- Consumer Price IndexPublished by Statistics CanadaExplainer: CPI
- Gross Domestic Product, monthly and quarterlyPublished by Statistics CanadaExplainer: GDP
- Retail tradePublished by Statistics CanadaExplainer: Retail sales
No dates or figures are shown here: each publisher’s own calendar is the authority. The explainers are in Economic Events; a release without a link has no explainer on this site yet.
Its main session
New York. Canada shares the North American business day. Canadian data arrive in the New York morning, at times in the same minute as US releases, which can make that moment a busy one for the pair with the US dollar.
At GIO4X
GIO4X lists one currency pair that contains the Canadian dollar. Each pair’s contract and published conditions are on its instrument page, where they are labelled as indicative. They are not repeated here.
A short history
The dollar replaced the pound as the unit of account of the Province of Canada in 1858, before Confederation. The Bank of Canada began operating in 1935. The currency floated from 1950 to 1962, earlier than most, and has floated without a break since 1970. The one-dollar coin introduced in 1987 carries a loon, a water bird, which gave the currency its nickname.
Words worth knowing
A reference page. Educational information, not investment advice or a recommendation to trade. It gives no exchange rate, no interest rate and no forecast.