Canadian Dollar Strengthens as Price of Crude Oil Rebounds

By Chris Fournier

Aug. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Canada's currency climbed for the first time in three days as the price of crude oil erased an earlier loss and increased.

The Canadian dollar strengthened versus the 16 most- actively traded currencies. Commodities account for more than half of the nation's export revenue. The U.S. is Canada's largest trading partner.

``Oil prices dipped overnight but have recovered,'' said Shane Enright, currency strategist at CIBC World Markets Inc. in Toronto.

The Canadian dollar appreciated 0.3 percent to C$1.0481 per U.S. dollar at 9:21 a.m. in Toronto, from C$1.0513 yesterday. One Canadian dollar buys 95.43 U.S. cents.

Crude oil rose 0.6 percent to $115.83 a barrel, after earlier dropping as much as 2.4 percent.

The currency will slip to C$1.10 against the U.S. dollar by the end of 2009, according to the median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.

To contact the reporter on this story: Chris Fournier in Montreal at cfournier3@bloomberg.net