An excellent showing for Canadian job growth as the economy rebounded in September with the easing of COVID restrictions. Jobs increased by 157,100, and the jobless rate fell to 6.9% from 7.1%. Blockbuster September Jobs Report–Further Fuel For Rising Interest Rates Statistics Canada released the September Labour Force Survey this morning, providing some unmitigated good […]

  The Bank of Canada raised its inflation forecast in the newly released July Monetary Policy Report (MPR), making it one of the most hawkish central banks in the world. The Bank announced its third action to reduce its emergency bond-buying stimulus program by one-third. The central bank was among the first from the advanced economies to shift […]

The Bank of Canada left the benchmark overnight policy rate unchanged at 0.25% and maintained its current pace of GoC bond purchases at its current pace. The Governing Council renewed its pledge to refrain from raising rates until the damage from the pandemic is fully repaired. The $3 billion weekly pace of bond-buying–known as quantitative […]

Bank of Canada Holds Rates and Bond-Buying Steady Dr. Sherry Cooper Chief Economist, Dominion Lending Centres drcooper@dominionlending.ca Much has changed since the Bank of Canada’s last decision on January 20. While the second pandemic wave was raging, new lockdowns were implemented in late 2020, and there were fears that the economy, in consequence, was likely […]

Q4 economic growth was much stronger than expected, as was the flash estimate for January ’21. This could help explain why interest rates have risen so fast recently and could portend a more optimistic statement from the Bank of Canada next week. View this email in your browser This morning’s Stats Canada release showed that […]

Housing Continued to Surge in January Today the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) released statistics showing national home sales hit another all-time high in January 2021. Canadian home sales increased 2.0% month-on-month (m-o-m) building on December’s 7.0% gain. On a year-over-year (y-o-y) basis, existing home sales surged 35.2%. As the chart below shows, January activity […]

The Bank of Canada, this morning, released its January Monetary Policy Report (MPR), showing they expect to keep overnight interest rates at its “effective lower bound” of 0.25% until 2023 (see chart below). To reinforce this commitment and keep interest rates low across the yield curve, the Bank will continue its Quantitative Easing (QE) program–buying […]

Despite the fears leading into the pandemic last Spring, 2020 marked a record number of home resales as new listings lagged and prices climbed. December housing data released by the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) today shows national home sales surged 7.2% month-over-month (m-o-m) at a time of the year when housing is normally slow. […]

Dr. Sherry Cooper Chief Economist, Dominion Lending Centres drcooper@dominionlending.ca Today’s release of November housing data by the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) shows national home sales continued to run at historically strong levels last month. Competition among buyers remains intense in the detached-home market and townhouses. Still, condo apartment sales-relative-to-new-listings have slowed as new listings […]

Despite the good news on the vaccine front since the Governing Council’s last meeting in late October, the Bank of Canada reasserted its commitment to provide extraordinary monetary policy support for many months to come. The statement released today reiterated that the Bank will hold the policy interest rate at its effective lower bound of […]