In our newest economic outlook, we foresee a sharp slowdown in growth in the second half of this year as rapid inflation and rising interest rates act as a powerful headwind on the economy. This moderates consumer spending and triggers a… Read More ›
Economic Outlook
E-sight Weekly June 27: Understanding the Inflation Shock
The main economic release last week was the Canadian Price Index for May, which showed Canadian inflation rose to 7.7 per cent, the fastest pace since 1983. The biggest contributors were gasoline, hotels, restaurants, food prices, shelter main contributors. Gasoline was a… Read More ›
E-Sight Weekly: Canada posts solid job creation, wage growth accelerates, Macklem hawkish
The latest Canadian employment report once again showed an economy with momentum and struggling with labour shortages. 40 thousand net new jobs were created in the month of May, which is a strong performance – an average monthly gain is… Read More ›
E-Sight Weekly June 6: Canadian GDP and Bank of Canada Policy Tightening
Last week had a very heavy economic calendar, with the Bank of Canada policy announcement and real GDP for the first quarter being the main events. The key takeaways are that while the Canadian economy had good momentum early this year,… Read More ›
E-Sight Weekly November 1: Growth, Inflation and Labour Shortages
The Bank of Canada’s monetary policy announcement was the main event last week, which I already covered in a commentary, so I won’t go into a lot of details. The Bank announced an end of its Quantitative Easing (QE) program,… Read More ›
E-Sight October 27: Bank of Canada ends quantitative easing helping to anchor inflation expectations
In a keenly awaited policy statement, the Bank of Canada announced that while it was leaving the overnight rate unchanged at 0.50% it was ending its quantitative easing program. The bond buying will continue, but only reinvesting maturing bonds. The Bank’s… Read More ›
E-Sight January 29: Canadian Economy Shows Surprising Strength in November
Today’s GDP release from Statistics Canada confirms just how bad the economic decline was in 2020. However, the release also provides some good news that the economy is weathering the recent public health restrictions better than expected. According to today’s… Read More ›
E-sight January 28: Recent Pandemic Control Measures Weigh on Small Business Confidence
The Canadian Federation for Independent Business (CFIB) reported this morning that both short- and longer-term confidence of small businesses was flat in January as the pandemic continues to weigh on firm’s prospects. The three-month index held steady this month at… Read More ›
E-sight January 20: Bank of Canada Sends a Clear Message while Inflation Decelerates
The Bank of Canada left its policy rate at 0.25% this morning and sent a clear message to markets that the overnight rate would stay at that level until its inflation objective is achieved. This comes after speculation in recent… Read More ›
E-Sights December 18: Retail Spending Continues to Grow but Impacts of the Second Wave Beginning to Emerge
Canadian retail sales continued to grow in October, gaining 0.4% month-over-month. After October’s increase, retail sales are now an impressive 4.5% above its pre-pandemic level. In volume terms, sales were up 0.2% which will likely help the industry make a… Read More ›
Alexander Economic Views 