August Inflation Hotter Than Expected Canada’s inflation rate accelerated more than expected for the second consecutive month, mainly driven by higher gasoline prices. This will not be a one-month wonder as gasoline prices rose further in September. The consumer price index increased 4.0% in August from one year ago, the fastest pace since April, after a 3.3% rise in July. That’s […]
Home Sales Dipped Once Again Last Month In The Wake of Two Consecutive BoC Rate Hikes Not surprisingly, buyers moved to the sidelines last month as the central bank took the overnight policy rate up to 5.0%. Home sales posted a 4.1% decline between July and August, well below the 10-year moving average shown in the chart below. However, on […]
August Jobs Report Beat Expectations Following a marked decline in employment in July, Statistics Canada reported a gain of 40,000 net new jobs in August. Hiring increased in professional, scientific and technical services and construction and declined in educational services and manufacturing. Population growth outpaced the growth in net new employment, depressing the employment rate to 61.9%. The unemployment rate […]
Bank of Canada Holds Rates Steady Acknowledging Economic Slowdown With last Friday’s publication of the anemic second-quarter GDP data, it was obvious that the Bank of Canada would refrain from raising rates at today’s meeting. Economic activity declined by 0.2% in Q2; the first quarter growth estimate decreased from 3.1% to 2.6%. Today’s press release announced, “The Canadian economy has […]
Rate Hikes Are Definitely Off The Table The Canadian economy weakened surprisingly more in the second quarter than the market and the Bank of Canada expected. Real GDP edged downward by a 0.2% annual rate in Q2. The consensus was looking for a 1.2% rise. The modest decline followed a downwardly revised 2.6% growth pace in Q1. (Originally, Q1 growth […]