Photo: The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

A Canadian dollar, left, and a Euro are seen next to a series of U.S. dollars in this January 26, 2011 photo in Montreal. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson

TORONTO - The Canadian dollar was higher Tuesday morning, supported by higher commodities after Germany posted better-than-expected economic growth for the second quarter while U.S. retail sales data also beat forecasts.

The loonie was ahead 0.18 of a cent to 100.94 cents US.

U.S. retail sales rose 0.8 per cent during July, the largest increase since February. Economists had expected a gain of 0.3 per cent.

Overseas, Germany, which is Europe's biggest economy, posted 0.3 per cent growth in the second quarter, beating expectations of a 0.2 per cent increase though slowing from the first quarter's 0.5 per cent growth.

At the same time, Eurostat, the European Union's statistics agency, said that the economies of both the eurozone and the wider 27-country EU shrank by a quarterly rate of 0.2 per cent in the second quarter of the year. In the first quarter, output for both regions was flat. A recession is officially defined as two straight quarters of falling output.

Spain, Portugal, Cyprus and Greece are already mired in recession.

The worsening debt crisis has worsened the prospects for an economic recovery in the rest of the world.

The positive data pushed the September crude contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange up 67 cents to US$93.40 a barrel.

Metal prices were also higher after two days of declines in the wake of surprising drops in Chinese exports and Japanese economic growth. The September copper contract on the Nymex edged up two cents to US$3.37 a pound.

Gold prices lost early traction, declining $1.40 to US$1,611.20.

December gold climbed $1.70 to US$1,614.30 an ounce.