Reuters

The Canadian dollar strengthened to a seven-month high against its U.S. counterpart on Friday as the greenback posted broad-based declines and domestic retail sales data supported bets that the Bank of Canada would remain on the sidelines.

The loonie was trading 1% higher at 1.3712 per U.S. dollar, or 72.93 US cents, its strongest intraday level since October 10.

It was the fifth straight day of gains for the currency, the longest daily winning streak since June. For the week, the currency was up 1.8%.

Canadian retail sales grew by 0.8% in March from February, more than analysts had forecast, while preliminary data showed an April increase of 0.5%.