By Chris Fournier Sept. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Canada’s dollar rose the most in three weeks as the International Monetary Fund cut its projection for global writedowns and crude oil and gold advanced, enhancing the appeal of currencies tied to growth. “There was lots of good news,” said Steve Butler, director of foreign-exchange trading in Toronto at Scotia Capital Inc., a unit of Canada’s third-largest bank. “We need to see a close through C$1.0650 to give the Canadian-dollar bulls some confidence.” The Canadian currency strengthened as much as 1.2 percent to C$1.0712 per U.S. dollar, the biggest intraday gain since Sept. 7, before trading at C$1.0744 at 7:59 a.m. in Toronto, compared with C$1.0846 yesterday. One Canadian dollar buys 93.08 U.S. cents. The loonie was headed for a 1.9 percent gain this month after a 1.5 percent loss in August. It gained 8.3 percent in the third quarter and was 14 percent higher for the year. The U.S. dollar fell today against all but two of its 16 most-traded counterparts tracked by Bloomberg as the IMF cut its projection for global writedowns on loans and investments by 15 percent to $3.4 trillion. The tally, released in a semiannual report today, was based on a new methodology after criticism of an April estimate of about $4 trillion. Canada’s economy expanded 0.5 percent in July from a month earlier, according to the median forecast of 21 economists in a Bloomberg News survey. Statistics Canada is due to release the report at 8:30 a.m. in Ottawa. Crude oil for November delivery rose as much as 1.9 percent to $67.99 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gold for immediate delivery rose as much as 1 percent to $1,004.60 an ounce. Canada draws more than half of its export revenue from raw materials.

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