Russia's Central Bank to Develop National Cryptocurrency

The popularity and value of dealing in cryptocurrency has been established over the past couple of years, with Bitcoin the most prominent of many new digital moneys.

The Russian Central Bank’s Deputy Chairman Olga Skorobogatova spoke at SPIEF 2017 spoke about Russia's interest in developing their own.

"Regulators of all countries agree that it’s time to develop national cryptocurrencies, this is the future," said Skorobogatova. "Every country will decide on specific time frames. After our pilot projects we will understand what system we could use in our case for our national currency,"

She wasn't the only Russian banking official to speak in favor of it at this year's economic forum. Part of the interest comes from the current state of cryptocurrencies, including that transactions can't be traced to any person, and that recently there have been new legislative restrictions imposed by various countries.

New Loonie Low

The loonie might go as low as 70 cents to the U.S. dollar in 2017, according to experts.

Right now it's around 73 cents, a 14-month low.

The fall of the loonie is tied to the same old things: a strong period for the U.S. economy, interest rate hikes by the U.S. Federal Reserve, and oil prices that are expected to stay low.

However, business in the U.S. isn't doing amazing: This week, the U.S. PMI was below the forcast level, and construction spending contracted very slightly.

Meanwhile, Canadian manufacturing is doing well. Their PMI reported a 6-year high this week.