Author: Sherry Cooper

It is no surprise that the Bank of Canada maintained its target overnight rate at 1/2 percent today, reaffirming its view that the Canadian economy is still operating with considerable slack despite strong employment growth and inflation remains below the 2 percent target. The policy statement highlighted that that “uncertainty about the global outlook is…

This morning, the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) released its December national real estate statistics showing home sales rose 2.2% month-over-month in the final month of last year. This rebound retraced less than half of the decline in November, when it posted the largest monthly decline in more than four years in response to the…

December’s jobs report was unambiguously strong showing employment gains of 53,700 (0.3%), the result of gains in full-time work. Finally, for the first time this year, full-time jobs outpaced part-time. The unemployment rate increased 0.1 percentage points to 6.9% as more people entered the labour force. This is evidence that the economy may be absorbing…

In a move to help BC citizens and residents buy their first home, the BC government announced today that it is launching a new program to augment down payments for first-time buyers. The B.C. Home Owner Mortgage and Equity Partnership program contributes to the amount first-time homebuyers have already saved for their down payment, providing…

This morning, the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) released its national real estate statistics for November showing the largest monthly decline in activity since August 2012. The number of home resales now stands at its lowest level since September 2015. Activity was down on a month-over-month basis in about two-thirds of all local markets, including…

Rarely has there been a more widely expected result as today’s 0.25 percent rate hike by the Fed. This is the second interest rate increase since the Fed started the current process of interest rate re-normalization one year ago. Although, many had called for additional hikes earlier this year, the policy makers held the overnight…

It is no surprise to anyone that the Bank of Canada maintained its target overnight rate at 1/2 percent today, judging that although the global economy has strengthened, uncertainty continues and is damaging business confidence and dampening investment in Canada’s major trading partners. Since the Trump victory, US interest rates have risen sharply with the…

Following four consecutive months of job gains, Canadian employment increased by 11,000 (or 0.1%) in November. Economists had expected hiring to decline by 15,000 according to the Bloomberg News survey. All of the rise in employment, however, was in part-time jobs, as full-time hiring fell by 8,700. This pattern is particularly worrisome as over the…

According to data released this morning by Statistics Canada, the Canadian economy bounced back strongly in the third quarter from the Alberta-wildfire contraction in Q2. The economy grew at a 3.5% (quarter-over-quarter) annual rate in Q3, in line with expectation, following the 1.3% slide in the prior period. The rebound was driven by a sharp…

This morning, the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) released its national real estate statistics for October, which showed a modest uptick in home sales nationally, as new listings ticked up and home prices increased once again. For Canada as a whole, the number of homes trading on the MLS Systems increased 2.0% month-over-month in October–up…