Author: Sherry Cooper

The divergence between the Canadian and U.S. economies continues as the July employment data reveal Canadian weakness and U.S. strength. The Canadian economy added 6,600 jobs last month as services-related sectors continued to offset job losses in manufacturing and natural resources. The gains reflected more self-employed and part-time work, with the number of full-time jobs…

That wasn’t supposed to happen given our exports are now more competitive. What’s different this time, says economist Sherry Cooper, is that auto manufacturers — significant contributors to the Canadian economy who benefited from the veil of competitiveness provided by a low loonie in past recessions — are not the important economic contributors they once…

Dr. Sherry Cooper, chief economist, Dominion Lending Centres “What is particularly troubling about this one is that the main culprit for the decline in May GDP was manufacturing, a sector that was supposed to be boosted by the weak Canadian dollar. This portends badly for the expected recovery in the current quarter as manufacturing exports…

The Canadian economy contracted in May by 0.2 percent, the fifth consecutive monthly decline. Here we go again. Another in a long list of serial disappointments for the Canadian economy. What is particularly troubling about this one is that the main culprit for the decline in May GDP was manufacturing, a sector that was supposed…

If Canada has a celebrity economist, it’s Sherry Cooper, whose high profile forecasts for BMO were required reading throughout the 1990s and 2000s. The Baltimore native began her career at the Federal Reserve Board and Fannie Mae in the U.S., before moving to Canada in 1983 to work for the brokerage firm Burns Fry (later…

No one expected the Fed to raise its benchmark short-term interest rate today for the first time since 2006. The Fed’s policy statement was, however, expected to at least hint at a rate hike at the next meeting in September. Fed Chair Janet Yellen has publicly stated she expects to raise rates this year–with three…

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…