MARCH 28 2023 Federal Budget 2023…Press the Snooze Button As promised, there would be nothing much in this year’s budget for fear of stimulating inflation. The federal government faces a challenging fiscal environment and a weakening economy. Ottawa promised it would err on the side of restraint. Instead, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland announced a $43 […]

MARCH 21 2023 Further Decline in Inflation in February Will Keep the Bank of Canada On Hold in April All eyes will be on the Federal Reserve tomorrow when they decide whether to hold rates steady because of the banking crisis or raise the overnight rate by 25 basis points (bps). Before the run on […]

MARCH 15 2023 Housing Market Could Be Poised For A Spring Rebound The Canadian Real Estate Association says home sales in February bounced 2.3% from the previous month. Homeowners and buyers were comforted by the guidance from the Bank of Canada that it would likely pause rate hikes for the first time in a year. The […]

MARCH 14 2023 US Policymakers Take Emergency Action To Protect Depositors At Failed Banks Silicon Valley Bank (SVP) had a sterling reputation among the many tech start-ups it helped to finance. What brought SVB down was an old-fashioned bank run set off in 2021 by a series of bad decisions. That year, the stock market […]

MARCH 2023 The Bank of Canada was the first major central bank to hit the pause button on rate hikes in late January. Given the slowdown in inflation in the recently released January CPI, The Bank of Canada refrained from hiking interest rates this month.  That is welcome news for homeowners with adjustable-rate mortgages whose […]

MARCH 10 2023 Canadian Labour Market Jeopardizes Rate Pause Today’s Labour Force Survey (LFS) for February was much stronger than expected, questioning how long the Bank of Canada’s rate pause can last. Following the 150,000 jobs gain in January, economists expected a small increase of 10,000 positions and a jobless rate of 5.1%. Instead, the economy added 21,800 […]

MARCH 8 2023 The Bank of Canada Holds Rates Steady Even As the Fed Promises to Push Higher As expected, the central bank held the overnight rate at 4.5%, ending, for now, the eight consecutive rate increases over the past year. The Bank is also continuing its policy of quantitative tightening. This is the first pause […]

FEBRUARY 28 2023 Bad News Is Good News for the Bank of Canada Statistics Canada released the real gross domestic product (GDP) figure for the final quarter of 2022 this morning, showing a marked slowdown in economic activity. This will undoubtedly keep the central bank on the sidelines when they announce their decision on March […]

FEBRUARY 21 2023 Further Decline in Inflation in January Affirms Bank of Canada Pause in March Canadian inflation decelerated meaningfully in January despite the continued strength in the economy. Labour markets remain very tight, and retail sales continue strong. Nevertheless, the Bank of Canada’s jumbo rate hikes over the past eleven months have tempered inflation […]

FEBRUARY 15 2023 December Housing Data Ended 2022 on a Weak Note The Canadian Real Estate Association says home sales in January were the lowest for the month since 2009 and fell 37.1% from a year ago. The Canadian housing market has been sliding for eleven consecutive months as the unprecedented rise in interest rates–up […]