Canadian building permits climb for 2nd month in a row in May. | CountingPips Forex & Currency Trading Blog

July 7, 2008 - Forex Economic News

Canadian building permits climb for 2nd month in a row in May.

Canadian building permits rose in May for the second month in a row according to a report by Statistics Canada released today. Building permits, used as a barometer of future construction, increased by 1.1 percent in May after a revised increase of 17 percent in April. The building permit rise was unexpected as market forecasts had expected a decline of about 6.0 percent in building permits for May. The amount of permits issued by municipalities in May grew to C$6.6 billion which marked the highest level in over six months. Contributing to the increase in permit issuances was non-residential building permits which increased by 12.8 percent for the month while residential permits declined by 6.6 percent for the month of May. The Ontario province led the way with the largest dollar increase in permit with a rise of 3.1 percent to C$2.5 billion for May. British Columbia and New Brunswick also had notable increases with gains of 5.7 percent and 67.1 percent, respectively. The Canadian dollar has gained against the U.S. dollar today in currency trading. The USD/CAD pair has fallen from an early high today of around 1.0230 to trading at 1.0167 in the U.S. trading session.

Tags: canada construction, building permits, cad, forex market

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