CANADA: The High Dollar

Ottawa's policy of minimum economic controls paid off encouragingly.

On the New York money market, the Canadian dollar climbed last week to a twelve-year high of 99.22¢ (U.S.) and some experts thought it might soon be more valuable than the U.S. dollar. Behind the rise in value was a continued heavy flow of foreign investment in booming Canada, spurred by the government's bold removal of all foreign-exchange restrictions on Dec. 14.

At Ottawa, the Dominion Bureau of Statistics reported that November's cost-of-living index was down one-tenth of a point to 191.1—the first drop since December 1949. Ottawa economists hoped that the inflationary spiral had been arrested, thus vindicating their program of strong credit controls and their dogged rejection of Tory and CCF demands for price ceilings.