For reference, the April 2020 average price for regular unleaded gasoline in Calgary averaged $0.662/l ($1.91/gallon) which is the lowest monthly average since February 2004. We saw gas prices at the pump of $0.59/l ($1.73/gallon) for regular unleaded gasoline back in April which is pretty unheard of in our part of the world. Again, because Canada is heavily dependent on its natural resources, this took a toll on the value of the Canadian dollar. The Saudi Arabian/Russian oil talks deteriorated into an all-out pricing war, leading to a 60% drop in West Texas Intermediate (WTI) prices in less than a month. Are we on the mend or will there be a resurgence later this year? The impact of COVID-19 on global economies is a long way from being over. Central banks, including the Bank of Canada and the Federal Reserve, took note of the pandemic and adopted dovish monetary policies to help support their economies. But will it trend towards even more favorable conditions?Īs we all know, there are a lot of unknowns taking place in the world these days thanks to the outbreak of coronavirus. Seeing the Canadian dollar lose ~10% of its value since the beginning of March makes a valid case that now is a good time to convert.
For all my visual learners like me out there Is This The Best Time to Convert USD to CAD? Unlike the 2016 blip that lasted less than 1 week, we’ve seen these rates sustained for over 2 months now. On March 20, 2020, we saw the USD/CAD exchange rate hit the 1.45 mark again and it’s been hovering in the 1.39-1.42 range ever since. As oil prices plateaued we saw the exchange rate back down into the 1.30-1.35 ever since that point in 2016. Oil prices tanked and because Canada is very heavily focused on natural resources, mainly oil & gas (Canada is the world’s fourth-largest oil-producing country behind the US, Saudi Arabia, and Russia), the CAD took a beating as the exchange rate reached its tipping point of 1.45 on January 18, 2016. Ohhh yea! I remember chatting with the gentleman who organized the hall we rented out about this and he chuckled “no need to rush, it’s not going anywhere”.Īnd boy was he right. When we saw the exchange rate reach 1.20 we jumped for joy to lock in various wedding expenses as we were now getting a 20% discount by paying with our USD greenbacks. I remember this time frame vividly as we were living in Florida, engaged, and planning our Canadian destination wedding in the summer of 2015 (which we kept under $9,000 CAD/$7,000 USD for 90+ people, I suppose we should write a future post on this eh?).
This illustrates the US’s struggle during the years of the Great Recession.Ģ014 saw a slight climb to 1.10 and by 2015 it had continued upwards in the 1.20 range as the US continued to recover and grow. For the most part, from late 2007 until the end of 2013 the USD/CAD exchange rate was generally close to 1.0.
In 2009 the exchange rate jumped up to the 1.25 range but then came back down to the 1.00 range by the end of 2009 where it remained through 2013. The Canadian real estate market did not suffer nearly as many foreclosures or short sales during this time. This recession was mainly due to subprime mortgages in the US. During the Great Recession, the US market took a beating while the Canadian market didn’t take as big of a nosedive. There were a couple of months where the Canadian dollar was stronger than the US dollar. For almost 4 years, from January 2003 until October 2007, the exchange rate gradually narrowed down to 1:1 par during the 2007-2008 financial crisis and slowly plummeted to its low of 0.94 in October 2007. A Look Back In Timeįrom the late 1990s to the early 2000s the exchange rate had reached it’s highest point during my lifetime peaking at 1.60 in February 2002. Now, I am by no means a foreign exchange rate expert by any means, but it is something I pay attention to since I am dealing in both US dollars and Canadian dollars for our portfolio. Looking at historical data from September 2003 to the present, there was only a short blip in January 2016 where we saw the exchange rate rival this figure for a week and then it went back down below 1.40 and it has remained in the 1.30-1.35 range for years. This means that for every $1.00 US dollar you convert to Canadian dollars, you’d end up with $1.40 Canadian dollars in your pocket. The USD/CAD exchange rate has been hovering around the 1.4 mark since the end of March. This post may contain sponsored content and/or affiliate links.
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