TORONTO - The Canadian dollar was slightly higher Friday amid rising commodity prices and data showing inflation pressures remain weak. The loonie was up 0.04 of a cent to 97.51 cents US as Statistics Canada reported that the Consumer Price Index rose one per cent in March compared with a year earlier, down from a 1.2 per cent rise in February. That was lower than the 1.1 per cent reading that economists had expected. The slower increase in the CPI was mainly the result of gasoline prices, which fell 0.3 per cent on a year-over-year basis in March, after rising 3.9 per cent in February. Commodity prices were mixed Friday at the end of a punishing week when prices for oil and metals tumbled amid new worries about the pace of the global economic recovery. Markets got off to a weak start Monday amid data showing growth in China coming in lower than expected. Losses picked up mid-week after the International Monetary Fund downgraded its estimates for global growth. Additionally, worries that the worst-hit countries of the eurozone debt crisis might use their gold reserves to deal with their problems helped sent bullion prices to their lowest levels in more than two years. The May crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange was up 44 cents to US$88.17 a barrel. June bullion gained $12.20 to US$1,404.70 an ounce. But copper remained stuck at 18-month lows, with the May contract down four cents at US$3.16 a pound.

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