Canadian price growth continues to slowly accelerate from recent lows, with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) increasing 1.0% in November, a 0.3 percentage point increase from the 0.7% growth observed in October. Gasoline continues to post sharp year-over-year price declines… Read More ›
E-Sight
E-Sight December 15: Housing Market Remains Hot and Manufacturing Holds Steady
Today the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) reported that new home sales fell 1.6% in November, a sign of some stabilization in a real estate market that remains hot. Home sales are 32.1% above year ago levels. Despite a significant… Read More ›
E-sight December 9: Bank of Canada Holds the Line
To no one’s surprise, the Bank of Canada left interest rates unchanged and monetary policy unaltered at its announcement today. The benchmark overnight rate will remain at the effective lower bound of 0.25% and the Bank will continue with its… Read More ›
E-Sight December 4: Canadian employment posts a strong gain in November, but new restrictions are forcing workers out of the labour market
Canadian employment increased by 62,100 in November. While this is good news, a closer look shows that COVID-19 is shrinking the Canadian labour market. With new restrictions making it harder to find work in people’s regular industries, some workers are… Read More ›
E-Sight December 1: Canadian economy rebounds in Q3, but recovery is uneven and losing momentum
Statistics Canada reported this morning that real GDP increased at an annualized pace of 40.5% in the third quarter, after declining by a revised 7.3% in the first quarter and 38.1% in the second. Despite the significant gain last quarter,… Read More ›
E-Sight November 30: Federal Fall Economic Statement – Big Numbers, Little Details
Today the Government of Canada tabled its Fall Economic Statement, providing an updated tracking for this year’s deficit, its first longer-term view of what its operating shortfall will look like over the coming years, and a few fiscal stimulus announcements. … Read More ›
E-Sight November 29: On tap this coming week: GDP, Employment & Fiscal Update – Oh My!
This week has a very busy economic calendar and it will tell us a lot about the state of the Canadian economy, federal finances and the scope of additional fiscal stimulus. On Tuesday, Statistics Canada will publish the national accounts… Read More ›
E-Sight November 18: Surging Global Debt is Worrying, Canadian Inflation Remains Soft Amidst Slowing Recovery
Global debt has surged, rising more than $15 trillion since 2019 and reaching a new record of over $272 trillion in Q3 2020. The amount of global leverage will climb further as governments provide additional stimulus to combat the second wave… Read More ›
E-Sight November 9: The implications of a Biden presidency for Canada
This is a particularly lengthy E-sight, but there is a lot of ground to cover and the issues are material for Canada. So, I hope you don’t mind the longer-than-normal word count. On Saturday, the press declared Joe Biden as… Read More ›
E-Sight November 6: Canada delivers solid job gains in October, but labour market recovery is slowing sharply
Canadian employment increased by 84,000 in October. This was better than expected, as many economists feared the new COVID-19 restrictions implemented in October would result in further job losses. Even still, October’s increase represents a dramatically slower employment gain than… Read More ›
Alexander Economic Views 