Author: Sherry Cooper
In a short but not-so-sweet missive, the Bank of Canada left its target overnight rate unchanged at 1/2 percent as expected. The Bank, however, sharply reduced its forecast for second quarter Canadian growth owing to the devastating wildfires in Alberta. The Bank’s economists estimate that the fire-related damage and shutdown of oil production will reduce…
May 9, 2016
Category: Media Reporting on Sherry Strong job numbers support Bank of Canada's optimism about a rebound: Economist
Canada loses 2,100 jobs in April, unemployment rate steady
From Business News Network (BNN): Sherry Cooper, Chief Economist at Dominion Lending Centres joins BNN to break down the April jobs numbers for Canada and the U.S.
March saw employment gains of 41,000 (+0.2%), the strongest reading in five months, with Alberta (of all places) enjoying the largest improvement. This lowered the unemployment rate by 0.2 percentage points to 7.1%. So it is not surprising to see job weakness in April report. Indeed, employment was virtually unchanged last month (-2,100 or 0.0%)…
Crude oil prices are poised for their biggest monthly gain in seven years, hitting a new high for 2016, and as day follows night, the Canadian dollar is up sharply–just shy of 80 cents U.S. Today’s February GDP report was not as weak as expected following the blowout number in January, leaving Canada likely to…
To no one’s surprise, the Bank of Canada left its target overnight rate unchanged at 1/2 percent. The Bank, however, reduced its forecast for the global economy and for the U.S. economy as well, suggesting that the outlook for Canadian exports is less favorable than earlier forecast. (Table 1 below shows the Bank’s current global…
Following three months of little job growth, economists expected to see a modest 5,000 increase in employment in March. The jobless rate was forecast to hold steady at 7.3%, matching the highest level in over 3 years. Surprise! March came in like a lion, with employment up 41,000 (+0.2%)–the strongest reading in five months. This…
Canada Has Only One Customer for Oil…And It’s Not Buying Canadian oil is landlocked. We have only one customer–the U.S.–and that customer is now producing more oil than it needs. What’s more, the U.S. considers Canadian oil to be dirty oil and, therefore, would prefer not to import it. Hence the downfall of the Keystone…
Here is the video featured in the second to last slide: