Author: Sherry Cooper

With the Canadian dollar taking a beating, one leading economist believes foreign investors will flock to the Canadian real estate market to take advantage. “Certainly. The price of Canadian real estate has fallen in U.S. dollar terms and in terms of many other currencies as well,” Dr. Sherry Cooper, chief economist with Dominion Lending Centres…

The move by the Bank of Canada to cut its key interest rate will help consumers out a little, but experts say with rates already near record lows, it won’t mean much for individual borrowers. Canada’s big banks trimmed their prime rates by 0.15 percentage points to 2.7 per cent in the wake of the…

He chopped the key overnight interest rate by 25 basis points to 0.5% in the hope it will stimulate Canada’s contracting economy. But that’s the only thing the bank can do to stimulate an economy in recession. Poloz may quibble about using that term, but I’m with most experts who will call this spade a…

The Bank of Canada cut its overnight rate target by 25 basis points to an historically low 0.5 percent today. The loonie immediately plunged to 77.5 cents U.S., down a full cent. The disparity between monetary policy in Canada and the U.S. is especially evident today as Janet Yellen, Chair of the Fed, is testifying…

Economists had expected a weak employment report for June on the heels of the larger-than-expected gain in May. Canadian employment fell by 6,400 last month as the biggest decline in part-time work in more than four years dwarfed gains in full-time positions. The unemployment rate remained at 6.8 percent for the fifth month in a…

  China has more than 120 times the population of Greece and is the second largest economy in the world, dominating demand for natural resources. Oil prices have fallen sharply once again in recent weeks, driving the Canadian dollar down sharply yesterday. Adding to the loonie’s rout was the news that business spending plans for nonresidential construction,…

Bond markets have tanked in the past several weeks, driving yields upward. Hundreds of billions of dollars have been wiped out in global bond markets. Ten-year government bond yields in Canada have risen 50 basis points (bps) in the past month as Treasury yields have jumped 32 bps. The rate increases in sovereign European bonds…

Employment data for the U.S. and Canada were released this morning, and once again, there was more bad news for Canada. Employment edged down in April (-20,000) on the heels of relatively flat numbers for the year so far. This was the largest decline in employment since August. Gains in full-time employment were more than…