By Courtney Tower

OTTAWA (MNI) - Canada's trade surplus with the United States was cut in half in July as exports declined and imports rose with its huge trading partner, sending Canada's trade deficit with the world to $2.7 billion from $1.8 billion in July.

The July trade deficit rose from a sharply revised deficit in June, to $1.8 billion from the $1.1 billion earlier reported.

LONDON (MNI) - The Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee left both the total amount of quantitative easing unchanged at stg200 billion and Bank Rate unchanged at 0.5% following its monthly meeting today.

The decision was in line with market expectations, with no-one in the markets anticipating any change to the current emergency settings of monetary policy. A Market News survey of analysts showed none expecting any change to Bank Rate in 2010.

HELSINKI (MNI) - Eurozone growth is likely to lose steam in the months ahead, reflecting the trend in other large economies and the unwinding of domestic stimulus measures and waning support from restocking, ECB Governing Council member Erkki Liikanen said Thursday.

"The world economy continues to recover," the Finnish central bank head told parliament here.

LONDON (MNI) - The euro LIBOR/OIS 3 month spread extended its tightened Thursday, with LIBOR dipping and the OIS rate rising.

The euro LIBOR/OIS spread tightened just over 1 basis point, in line with the earlir move in Euribor/OIS. Euro is providing the big moves in interbank spreads, with sterling spreads tending to drift and dollar spread tightening running out of momentum have fallen to something over 10 basis points.

On Thursday, dollar 3-month LIBOR/OIS was unchanged at 10.75 basis points, with its euro counterpart narrowing to 32.294 bps.

LONDON (MNI) - European credit markets have tightened a little although the price action is relatively subdued today. Equities have managed to grind higher in Europe, although with prices in mid-range, it is easy to over analyse equity price action, which is expected to remain choppy for the short term around the recent range's mid-point.

LONDON (MNI) - European credit markets have tightened a little although the price action is relatively subdued today. Equities have managed to grind higher in Europe, although with prices in mid-range, it is easy to over analyse equity price action, which is expected to remain choppy for the short term around the recent range's mid-point.

LONDON (MNI) - European credit markets have tightened a little although the price action is relatively subdued today. Equities have managed to grind higher in Europe, although with prices in mid-range, it is easy to over analyse equity price action, which is expected to remain choppy for the short term around the recent range's mid-point.

LONDON, Sep 9 (MNI) - Euro-dollar continued to pivot around $1.2700 through Asian and European trade Thursday with rate seen driven by cross flows.

Wednesday's Portugal bond auction provided some respite to the recent pressure on the single European currency, but recovery efforts remain laboured.

Asian sovereign sell interest at Y84.00 continued to cap any recovery efforts, with rate consolidating recent moves within a range of Y83.50/00.