Author: Sherry Cooper

The June jobs data blew past expectations, all but insuring that the Bank of Canada will hike interest rates by a quarter point next week–the first rate hike in seven years. Market rates have already risen in expectation and the Royal Bank has boosted interest rates on its two-year, three-year and five-year fixed-term mortgage rates…

From Business News Network (BNN): As the U.S. Fed raises its key benchmark interest rate, Sherry Cooper, chief economist at Dominion Lending Centres, joins BNN to discuss the Fed’s plan to unwind the balance sheet and how it will impact markets.

Another Sign Of A Economic Strength Statistics Canada just released the Labour Force Survey for May, adding to the stream of positive economic indicators. While the jobless rate edged up 6.6% from a cycle-low 6.5%, it was the result of more optimism about job prospects as more people participated in the labour market. The jobless…

The Bank of Canada has once again held the overnight rate steady at 0.50 per cent pointing to continued low inflation and subdued wage growth, which the Bank judges to be consistent with continuing excess capacity in the economy. In a very terse press release, the Bank suggests that the U.S. and global economies will…

Since last month’s release of CREA housing data, the Ontario government has introduced a similar 15% tax on foreign purchases in the Greater Golden Horseshoe (GGH), which is Canada’s largest urbanized area centred on the City of Toronto, where house prices have risen very sharply over the past decade and spiked in 2016 (see map…

Canada’s economy generated virtually no net new job growth in April, on the heels of a  multi-month employment rally that was the strongest in years. Employment has now increased in 15 of the last 17 months with growth over the last year averaging a solid 23,000 per month. The details of the monthly report for…

Premier Kathleen Wynne surprised the market yesterday by announcing sweeping measures aimed at cooling the red-hot housing market a full week before Ontario Budget Day. The sixteen-measure package is largely intended to do three things: Cool demand; boost supply; and limit the increases in rents.  No one doubts that something needed to be done to…