Forex News - Canadian GDP grows in January by 0.6%. New Zealand business survey falls. - CountingPips Forex & Currency Trading Blog

March 31, 2008 - Forex Economic News

Forex News - Canadian GDP grows in January by 0.6%. New Zealand business survey falls.

The Canadian economy grew by 0.6 percent in January according to a report by Statistics Canada released today. January's growth reverses a 0.7 percent decline in the GDP for December 2007. Manufacturing and wholesale trade provided boosts to the GDP numbers for the month. Wholesale trade surged 2.8 percent in January while manufacturing increased by 1.7 percent after falling 3.4 percent in December. The gdp growth of 0.6 percent was the largest monthly increase since April of 2005.

New Zealand survey turns negative.

A prominent New Zealand business confidence survey fell to its lowest point in 17 years according to the National Bank of New Zealand. The March business survey results showed that a net 58 percent of businesses felt that conditions would be worse over the year which was up from 44 percent in February. Businesses expect that their own business would turn negative as a net 6 percent of respondants expect their business to take a downturn over 2008. Also, contributing to the deterioration in business confidence was investment intentions, profit expectations, employment and overall worries about growth prospects in New Zealand for 2008. The New Zealand dollar has been trading lower against the major currencies in the markets today. The NZD/USD pair has fallen to .7860 after trading above .8000 for most of last week.

Tags: canada gdp, gross domestic product, new zealand, business confidence survey, nzd usd

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