Increasing Mortgage Rates Weighed Heavily On Housing In September Mortgage rates continued to rise in September after BoC tightening and one of the largest bond selloffs in history. Yields have retraced some of their rise more recently, but demand for new and existing homes has slowed. According to data released by the Canadian Real Estate Association, national home sales declined […]
Another Strong Jobs Report Tests BoC’s Patience Canadian employment rose by a whopping 63,800 in September, tripling market expectations. The underlying data put the strong job growth into perspective. Most of the gains in overall employment were in part-time work, and total hours worked declined by 0.2%. Moreover, the unemployment rate held steady for the third consecutive month at 5.5% […]
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 […]