Author: Sherry Cooper

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,…

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…

The tone of today’s Federal Reserve Policy Statement was decidedly dovish as the Fed attributed only some of the slowdown in growth in the first quarter to transitory factors. Coming in at only 0.2%, GDP growth in the U.S. slowed to a crawl in the first three months of this year. Businesses slashed investments, consumers…

Dr. Sherry Cooper, Chief Economist for Dominion Lending Centres (DLC) was expecting the Bank of Canada to leave interest rates unchanged today in the wake of the surprising rate cut in late January.

The most remarkable thing about the 2015 federal budget is how little new is in it. Everything meaningful had been preannounced. Gone are the days of activist government at the federal level. The budget’s message of tax cuts and balanced budgets will form the core of the Conservative Party’s election campaign as it seeks a…