By DAVID GEORGE-COSH The Canadian dollar extended losses against the U.S. dollar early Friday, following a surprisingly weak retail sales figure for December, and another benign reading of Canada's consumer price index for January. The U.S. dollar was recently at C$1.0225 Friday, from C$1.0208 right before the data and C$1.0186 late Thursday, according to data provider CQG. The U.S. dollar surged higher against its Canadian counterpart after news that Canada's core inflation rose by 1.0% on a year-over-year basis in January, well below the Bank of Canada's medium-term inflation target of 2%, while the headline index rose by 0.5%. Economists expected the core inflation for January to come in at 1.0%, while the headline rate was expected to be 0.6%, a three-year low, according to Royal Bank of Canada. Separately, retail sales figures for December slumped by 2.1%, the biggest one-month decline since April 2010 and well under expectations of a monthly decline of 0.3%.

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