gbp-cad-currency-symbols - GBP-CAD

GBP/CAD is bullish on Friday, though it is departing from its daily peak. Currently, one British pound buys 1.7571 Canadian dollars, up 0.09% as of 11:45 AM UTC. Yesterday, the pair surged 1.47% to close at 1.7548. Today, the price touched a daily high at 1.7635. Despite the massive surge, the pair is still trading inside a sideways channel since the end of March.

The Loonie started to decline after Statistics Canada reported that the country’s economic growth was flat in February, even before the coronavirus was labeled as a pandemic. The gross domestic product (GDP) performance was negatively impacted by a teacher’s strike in Ontario and amid the spread of the coronavirus across China. Analysts polled by Reuters expected a 0.1% increase.

Earlier this month, Stascan said that the economy would likely have tumbled 9% in March, dragged down by collapsing oil prices and COVID-related lockdown measures.

Yesterday, the country’s Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) said that the worst-case but realistic scenario was a GDP contraction of 12% in 2020, with a possible 20% decline in the second quarter.

In a separate report, Statistics Canada said that producer prices had declined by 0.9% in March, while prices of raw materials tumbled 15.6%.

UK Manufacturing PMI Plummets to 32.6

The GBP/CAD has lost momentum after IHS Markit and CIPS released the UK manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI). The reading shows that British factories experienced the biggest drop in output and orders in at least 30 years in April.

The index fell to a record low at 32.6 in April from 47.8 in March, in line with analysts’ forecasts and slightly below the flash estimate.

Rob Dobson of IHS Markit commented:

Huge swathes of industry were hit hard by company closures, weak global demand, lockdowns and social distancing measures in response to COVID-19. The only pockets of growth were seen at firms making medical and food products.”

The output sub-index collapsed to a record low of 16.3 from 43.9 in March.

The UK government led by Prime Minister Boris Johnson introduced the lockdown measures on March 23. While people may travel to work, manufacturers saw a massive decline in demand.