Media

Robust Jobs Report in June, Much Better Than Expected The June Labour Force Survey, released this morning by Statistics Canada, reflects labour market conditions as of the week of June 14 to June 20. By that time, public health restrictions had been eased in most parts of the country. Tighter restrictions remained, however, in much of southwestern…

Astonishing Fiscal Red Ink Announced Today Finance Minister Bill Morneau presented his fiscal snapshot this afternoon. Most economists were expecting a budget deficit of roughly $260 billion. Instead, the government announced a deficit for the fiscal year 2020-21 of $343.2 billion–close to 16% of GDP. That compares to the $34.4 billion deficit projected before the…

Canadian Business Sentiment Is Negative  The Bank of Canada released its Summer Business Outlook Survey (BOS)* this morning, covering an interview period from mid-May to early June. In all provinces and all sectors, the sentiment was hugely negative owing to the impact of the pandemic and falling oil prices.  Since the previous survey, conducted before concerns about…

Dr. Sherry Cooper was recently featured on Episode #92 of The Everyday Millionaire podcast where she discussed various insights about the current economic situation, the power of PIVOT and focusing on the way forward. Click here to listen to the full episode. “Everybody needs to keep feeing their minds and their bodies healthfully and… continue…

In case you missed it, Dr. Sherry Cooper was recently featured on The Globe and Mail’s Housing Outlook webcast. This discussion called on various experts to outline the impacts of the pandemic on housing, along with potential paths forward. The discussion also included updates on the economic effects of COVID-19, housing market forecasts and government…

Canada’s Economy Plunged 11.6% in April The pandemic shutdown put every sector of the economy into a medically induced coma, so it was no surprise that the first full month of lockdown would be ugly. Indeed, consensus estimates were worse than the 11.6% drop in economic activity reported this morning by Statistics Canada (see chart below)….

First Formal Remarks By Tiff Macklem, Bank of Canada Governor There were no surprises this morning from Governor Macklem’s virtual presentation to the Canadian Clubs of Canada. His opening written statement was quite brief and it was followed up with a Q and A. Here are the key points that he emphasized. Negative interest rates are…

Opening Statement Before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance None of us has any experience in dealing with a medical emergency that has become an economic crisis, and none of us knows how long this will last or how the end game will play out. I think we all can agree that this…

Record Gains in Canadian Home Sales and Listings in May There was good news today on the housing front. Home sales surged by a record 56.9% in May from April’s unprecedented collapse. Data released this morning from the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) showed national home sales recovered roughly one-third of the COVID-induced loss between February…

More Green Shoots–Employment Rebounds 10.6% in May  The doomsayers have been proven wrong by this employment report and by the high-frequency data that have been pointing to the start of a rebound in Canada’s economic activity. We have been signalling green shoots in the economy for several weeks, and while these are early days, those…