Filtered by Subscriptions: Canada Economics Use setting Canada Economics
The recent pick-up in inflation, which mainly reflects volatility in energy and food prices, won't change the Bank of Canada's neutral view on rates. With exports and investment still underperforming and housing slowing, the disinflationary effects from …
24th June 2014
The recent rally in Canada's benchmark stock market index, which has risen by 24% over the past 12 months, took it to a new record high last week. What's more impressive from our vantage point is the fact that Canada's equity market performance has …
23rd June 2014
The stronger than expected pick-up in both headline and core inflation indicates that inflation will overshot the Bank of Canada's previous forecast assumptions. Since a large part of this is due to the pass-through effects from a lower Canadian dollar, …
20th June 2014
While Canadian policymakers will be somewhat relieved to learn that household financial leverage hasn't risen any higher this year, it hasn't fallen either, meaning that heavily indebted households are still dangerously exposed to any increases in …
19th June 2014
Although inflation has been on the rise, the broader evidence suggests that this pick-up should prove temporary. Economic growth since the start of the year has been disappointing and labour market conditions remain weak. If, as we expect, the economy …
17th June 2014
While the Canadian government has been tightening its macro-prudential housing rules over the past five years, housing valuations have continued to inflate and household financial leverage has climbed to record levels. As a consequence, housing …
16th June 2014
The disappointing decline in manufacturing sales in April was entirely due to lower prices, whereas sales volumes continued to recover from the weather-related drop late last year. With sales now fully recovered, we expect further gains to be much harder …
13th June 2014
The latest Teranet house price data provide some early evidence that the slowdown in house price inflation continued in May. The past decline in existing home sales and the steady rise in the number of properties for sale suggest that house price …
12th June 2014
The Canadian dollar's decline, which began about a year ago, has reinforced the Bank of Canada's prior view that it's long-awaited export recovery is finally set to go. Over the past year, however, the currency depreciation has had little impact on …
9th June 2014
The 25,800 rebound in employment in May wasn't quite enough to reverse fully the slightly bigger decline in the previous month and it leaves the level of employment barely higher over the past six months, justifying the Bank of Canada's recent …
6th June 2014
Our fear is that the impressive recovery in new motor vehicle sales since the recession ended, which was driven principally by a surge in light truck sales, will fade as the housing boom falters, removing what has been a support to economic growth. … …
5th June 2014
The Bank of Canada retained its neutral rate bias in its latest policy statement and emphasised that, although core inflation has turned out slightly firmer than expected, it is more concerned than before about economic growth prospects. Overall, the …
4th June 2014
Canada's merchandise trade position unexpectedly shifted from an upwardly revised surplus in March to a small deficit in April, as the terms of trade deteriorated and energy and primary metals exports dropped back. With energy production still rising at a …
The recent decline in Government of Canada bond yields is consistent with market participants revising down their longer-term expectations of the future path of the overnight policy interest rate. Rather than being triggered by domestic factors, however, …
2nd June 2014
Although Canada's slowdown in the first quarter can be partly blamed on bad weather, the underlying trends suggest that the economy lost some momentum in exports and investment. While this should turn around soon, we still think that the expected …
30th May 2014
We expect the Bank of Canada to retain its neutral interest rate bias in next week's policy statement. Although inflation has been firmer than the Bank had expected, due to higher energy prices and the lower Canadian dollar, labour market conditions …
28th May 2014
In contrast to the upbeat news coming out of the US, the more Canadian data we see on economic activity in March, the less reassured we are that the softness in the preceding three months was just a weather-related blip. Judging by the softening trends in …
26th May 2014
The expected increase in headline inflation, to 2.0% in April from 1.5% in March, mainly reflects higher energy price inflation which should prove to be temporary. In contrast, core inflation only nudged higher. With the Bank of Canada focused on the …
23rd May 2014
While the pace of Canadian job creation appears to have slowed somewhat, the corresponding deterioration in job quality is more perplexing. Lower-wage part-time employment appears to be taking the place of higher paying full-time positions, casting …
22nd May 2014
The unexpected decline in March's retail sales volumes, combined with the mixed showing in wholesale and manufacturing sales, suggests that the economy continued to struggle at the end of the first quarter. … Retail Sales …
While the recent strength of Canada's housing market has been astounding, the regional breakdown reveals that it has begun to fray at the edges. With house prices already declining in some smaller regions, it may only be a matter of timing before prices …
19th May 2014
Manufacturing continued to recover in March from the severe winter that dampened sales volumes late last year. With sales almost fully recovered now, we expect further gains to be more modest, as domestic producers struggle to compete, particularly in …
15th May 2014
Although the Teranet measure of house price inflation ticked up to 4.9% in April, from 4.6%, the earlier decline in existing home sales suggests some moderation in house price gains this year. Our expectations of a steady fall in home sales would …
14th May 2014
Canada's exports have continued to underperform, despite gradually improving US economic conditions and the fall in the previously high-flying Canadian dollar. Although the bad weather partly explains the sharp drop in Canadian merchandise export volumes …
12th May 2014
April's unexpected 28,900 decline in net employment suggests that the economy remained stuck in the slow lane last quarter, hampered by an underperforming export sector and a housing slowdown. Accordingly, the odds of an interest rate cut from the Bank of …
9th May 2014
While Canada's external merchandise trade surplus shrunk unexpectedly in March, from a bigger than previously estimated surplus in February, the more discouraging news was the declines in export and import volumes. For the first quarter overall, it now …
6th May 2014
Canada's uneven regional economic performance presents a dilemma for the Bank of Canada. While natural resource-rich provinces flourished last year, those that are reliant on manufacturing struggled badly. There is obviously little the Bank can do to …
5th May 2014
February's consensus-matching 0.2% m/m increase in GDP, together with small upward revisions to earlier figures, suggest that first-quarter GDP growth will turn out to be close to 2.0% annualised, higher than the Bank of Canada's estimate of 1.5%. Given …
30th April 2014
February's payroll figures suggest that nominal wages and salaries growth slowed in the first quarter and discouraging job quality trends suggest that wages might not improve much in this quarter either. Meanwhile, faster rising consumer prices will …
29th April 2014
The recent jump in gasoline prices isn’t a conundrum. Several explanatory factors are at play, including seasonal effects. But for the most part, rising gasoline prices reflect higher refinery crude input costs and the lower Canadian dollar. Unfortunately …
28th April 2014
Canada’s economic underperformance will continue as competitiveness challenges restrain exports and the slowdown in housing intensifies. We expect GDP to increase by 2.0% in 2014, before slowing to only 1.5% in 2015. Under these circumstances, the Bank of …
24th April 2014
The trivial rise in retail sales volumes in February suggests that spending was probably still being held back by the unusually severe winter weather. Nonetheless, after accounting for the better gains in both wholesale and manufacturing trade, we …
23rd April 2014
As the effects of the severe winter weather subside in the second quarter, the resulting bounce back in GDP growth could be misinterpreted as a sign of improving fundamentals rather than a short-lived burst of pent up demand. While we agree that there is …
21st April 2014
While headline inflation rebounded to 1.5% in March, from 1.1%, the uptick was due to higher energy prices and base year effects. In contrast, core inflation climbed only slightly to 1.3% last month, from 1.2%, suggesting that fierce retail competition is …
17th April 2014
The Bank of Canada retained its neutral rate bias in its latest policy statement and emphasised that, despite the lower Canadian dollar, core inflation will still take about two years to return to target. With the Bank clearly still concerned about the …
16th April 2014
The steady rise in Canadian oil prices over the past few months has, in the case of light sweet crude, left them back on par with international benchmarks. Canada's energy producers have benefitted from the reconfiguration of pipelines at the US Cushing …
15th April 2014
Despite the rebound in manufacturing sales volumes in February, the significant downward revisions to sales in the two preceding months confirm that bad weather dampened economic growth in the first quarter. We estimate that first-quarter GDP growth was …
The decline in the Teranet measure of house price inflation to 4.6% in March, from 5.0%, reflects the earlier drop back in existing home sales. We expect sales to continue falling, eventually prompting an outright decline in prices. … Teranet-National …
14th April 2014
Canada's economic performance over the second half of last year was slightly stronger than the Bank of Canada had assumed at the start of the year, but there have been few signs of the rotation in demand towards exports and business investment that it has …
We anticipate that the Bank of Canada will retain its neutral bias on rates in next week's policy statement, although some dovish tweaks might surprise markets. Economic growth remains unbalanced, thwarted by weak exports and housing imbalances. …
9th April 2014
The recent slowdown in housing starts is just the beginning of a long-term correction that will dampen economic growth this year and next. If, as we expect, new home sales soften further, in response to tighter credit conditions and softening investor …
8th April 2014
The modest improvement evident in the Bank of Canada's spring Business Outlook Survey is an encouraging sign, but doubts remain about the near-term outlook for exports and softening domestic demand. Accordingly, we doubt that this slight increase in …
7th April 2014
The recent acceleration in wage inflation is an encouraging sign, especially considering the excess slack in labour markets and still uncertain economic outlook. For these and other reasons, however, there is limited upside potential to wage growth this …
Employment increased by a robust 42,900 in March, driving the unemployment rate down to a four-month low of 6.9%, from 7.0%. Unfortunately, the bulk of the net jobs created last month were apparently part-time positions taken up by youths. … Labour Force …
4th April 2014
February's merchandise trade report, which revealed only a partial rebound in export volumes, can be partly blamed on bad weather. Nevertheless it still seems that Canada's economy isn't benefitting fully from the steadily improving US economy. … …
3rd April 2014
The stronger than expected 0.5% m/m rebound in January's GDP, which fully reversed December's weather-related contraction, suggests that bad weather had a smaller effect on first-quarter activity than previously thought. Accordingly, the risks to our GDP …
31st March 2014
The decision by Canada's large banks to cut fixed mortgage rates ahead of the typically busy Spring home buying season won't boost sagging home sales. With housing so unaffordable, mortgage rates already incredibly low and mortgage lending rules tighter, …
In his speech last week, Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz argued that the legacy of the financial crisis and demographic changes can explain Canada's recent lacklustre economic performance. More importantly, the latter also implies that future trend …
24th March 2014
The decline in annual headline inflation to 1.1% in February, from 1.5%, won't concern the Bank of Canada as it mainly reflects base-year effects in transportation and clothing. Meanwhile, the strong rebound in retail sales volumes in January, following …
21st March 2014
Pauline Marois, leader of the separatist Parti Quebecois (PQ), has suggested that an independent Quebec could hold a seat on the governing council of the Bank of Canada and retain the Canadian dollar as its currency. While it would lead to increased …
19th March 2014
