Media

Canadian Jobs Market Tanked in December Canadian employment fell 62,600 last month, a bit weaker than expected, following seven months of recovery (see chart below). The rapid rise in COVID cases and the ensuing lockdown measures in many key regions caused the net loss in jobs in the mid-December survey.  Especially hard hit were workers at…

Canadian Housing Remained Strong in November  Today’s release of November housing data by the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) shows national home sales continued to run at historically strong levels last month. Competition among buyers remains intense in the detached-home market and townhouses. Still, condo apartment sales-relative-to-new-listings have slowed as new listings surged, especially in the City…

Bank of Canada Confirms Commitment To Low Interest Rates Despite the good news on the vaccine front since the Governing Council’s last meeting in late October, the Bank of Canada reasserted its commitment to provide extraordinary monetary policy support for many months to come. The statement released today reiterated that the Bank will hold the…

Canada’s Jobs Recovery Slowed Again in November With Second Wave The November Labour Force Survey, released this morning by Stats Canada, showed an employment increase of 62,000 compared to 83,600 in October–well below the 378,000 gain in September.  This was the weakest job growth in the past six months since the economic recovery began (see…

Rebounding Q3 Canadian Economy Stalls in Q4 The Canadian economy rebounded sharply in the third quarter, posting its most rapid expansion ever. Still, it was a lower than expected gain, and early data show that momentum is quickly fading in the face of a second wave of the pandemic. Gross domestic product rose by a massive…

Federal Fiscal Update–Finance Minister Freeland’s Debut Justin Trudeau’s government, which has delivered the biggest COVID-19 fiscal response in the industrialized world, announced plans for another dose of stimulus and vowed to continue priming the pump as long as needed. Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland unveiled $51.7 billion of new spending over two years in a mini-budget Monday, led…

Canadian October Home Sales Slipped for the First Time Since April Today’s release of October housing data by the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) shows national home sales fell 0.7% month-over-month (m-o-m) from September’s record high (see chart below). This is the first decline in five months, as market conditions remained tight and prices continued…

Canada’s Jobs Recovery Slowed in October With New Pandemic Restrictions The October Labour Force Survey, released this morning by Stats Canada, showed an employment increase of 83,600–well below the 378,000 gain in September and average monthly gains of 395,000 over the past six months (see chart below). Several provinces tightened public health restrictions last month…

The Bank of Canada’s commitment to prolonged record-low rates is more than justified considering that the reopened economy ended up being strong but uneven, according to Sherry Cooper, chief economist at Dominion Lending Centres. “Growth is estimated to have rebounded strongly in the third quarter, reversing about two-thirds of the decline observed in the first half of…

Bank of Canada Recalibrates Quantitative Easing As expected, the Bank held its target overnight rate at the effective lower bound of 25 basis points with the clear notion that negative policy rates are not in the cards. Instead, the central bank will continue to rely on large-scale asset purchases–quantitative easing (QE). The central bank is recalibrating its QE…