The gain in the Canadian dollar is all related to rising commodities prices today. Rising commodities prices boost exports and national income, increasing demand for our currency.
House prices are accelerating, and maybe you can say that's a bubble or not and there will be some correction down the road.
The big drivers of the currency are commodity prices and interest-rate increase expectations.
Price pressures were fairly mild, despite the economy operating flat out.
The non-residential construction that is related to several capital projects. These large capital works projects will drive growth in New Brunswick through next year.
There's a lot of uncertainty about whether Rita will cause as much damage to the oil infrastructure as Katrina did.
Economic growth is on track, which will spur a couple more interest-rate increases from the central bank. Higher interest rates support the Canadian dollar.
Foreign investors are still quite keen to buy Canadian bonds as we still have low and stable inflation.
That (the drop in the core rate) will take some pressure off the Bank of Canada to aggressively raise interest rates.
With incomes outpacing spending I think American consumers will keep spending like crazy going into the New Year, ... That's going to be taken into consideration by Greenspan, who's trying to slow things down.
