BlackBerry Woes Underscore Canada’s Currency Challenges

Smartphone maker BlackBerry Ltd.’s slide from innovator to also-ran epitomizes the challenges facing the Canadian dollar as the North American country looks to exports to fuel growth.

“Now Canada buys more iPhones than it sells BlackBerries,” James Kwok, the London-based head of currency management at Amundi Asset Management, which oversees the equivalent of $1 trillion, said in a Jan. 7 phone interview. “A lot of structural changes have been happening in Canada over the last few years, which has made Canada’s trade balance structurally weaker.”