A tough week as Australian Dollar, Turkish Lira and Canadian Dollar all struggle

Elsewhere on Friday, the Australian dollar struggled to shake the impact of low employment figures released earlier in the week. A midweek report showed that the country had unexpectedly shed 22,500 jobs throughout December, pegging back the gains shown by the Australian dollar at the start of the week. The figures increased the likelihood of a rate-cut decision by the central bank in the first part of this year, and pushed the currency back to 2010 lows against sterling.

The Turkish lira dropped to record lows against the majority of its peers on Friday. After consistent devaluation of the currency over the last 12 months, significant further ground was lost on Friday following speculation that the central bank will keep interest rates unchanged this week, despite inflation being above target.

We also saw the Canadian dollar continue to hover around 4-year lows on Friday. All eyes will be on its central bank meeting on Wednesday, where an interest rate decision be reached, and there may be clues surrounding future monetary policy decisions. Key data from Canada to look forward to this week include manufacturing and retail sales figures as well as inflation data.

We also look forward to New Zealand inflation figures today, and a press conference from the Bank of Japan later this week.

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