This week, gas prices in the GTA have dropped anywhere from 5-10 cents since last week. Now, after gas prices have been climbing steadily for the past few months since the last big drop late last fall, prices are dropping again. I am no financial expert, but after following the major currencies for the past year, my observation has been that the Canadian dollar tends to follow the trends in the oil market fairly closely, likely because Albertan oil is one of Canada’s major exports. When gas prices were severley over-inflated last summer the Canadian dollar surpassed the American dollar, which hasn’t happened for decades. When the oil prices dropped sharply last fall, the Canadian dollar dropped in value.
The current drop in oil prices is certianly a good indicator that the Canadian dollar is due to plummet, especially if the estimates in this Chicago Tribune article are true and the price of oil drops to $20 a barrel by the end of this year. There is a lot of buzz about dropping oil prices in the finance world right now, so you may want to investigate for yourself. If you need to buy foreign currency, now might be a good time!
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