Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty likes the loonie `in the 90s somewhere` [that’s in CAD/USD terms] but warns that the Bank of Canada will face pressure to raise interest rates this year. He spoke to CTV in an interview that aired Sunday.
“I think the pressure will be there, because the Fed in the U.S. should stop printing money, and taper off as they say. And that should help,” he said, referring to the dialing back of U.S. bond-buying, or quantitative easing. “The OECD and the IMF have both said to Canada we ought to let our interest rates go up a bit. So there’ll be some pressure there for that to happen.”
Flaherty also pledged to balance the budget in the 2015-16 fiscal year and hinted at a large surplus: “Yes, we’ll balance. And it won’t be close. We’re in good shape,” he said.
We could see some early trading on these comments but other than the budget comment, it all falls outside of the finance ministry so I`d fade any strong moves.
