Canada's headline inflation rate cooled again in August, even a bit more than expected. The consumer price index rose 7.0% from a year ago, down from 7.6% in July and a forty-year high of 8.1% in June, mainly on the back of lower gasoline prices.
The CPI fell 0.3% in August, the most significant monthly decline since the early months of the COVID-1...
Canadian housing starts fell by 7.7k (2.8 per cent) to 267.4k units in August at a seasonally-adjusted annual rate (SAAR). Comparing year-over-year, starts were up from August of 2021 (2.5 per cent). Single-detached housing starts rose 1 per cent to 73.4k, while multi-family and others declined 4.2 per cent to 194k (SAAR).
The August employment report, released this morning by Statistics Canada, was considerably weaker than expected. Higher interest rates have slowed the red-hot labour market. The Canadian economy shed 39,700 jobs in August, missing market expectations of a 15,000 rise and bringing cumulative declines since May 2022 to 113,500 (see chart below). The...
The Canadian economy rose 0.1 per cent in June, up for the fifth consecutive month. Goods-producing sectors rose 0.1 per cent while services-producing industries were up 0.2 per cent. Canadian real GDP is now roughly 2.3 per cent above its pre-pandemic, February 2020 level. However, preliminary estimates suggest that output in the Canadian economy...
While we are all grateful that gasoline prices declined from record highs in July, today's release of the July inflation data shows that the underlying inflation momentum remains too strong for comfort. Governor Macklem will likely continue to hike the policy rate aggressively when they next announce...
Canadian housing starts rose by 2.9k (1.1 per cent) to 275.3k units in July at a seasonally-adjusted annual rate (SAAR). Comparing year-over-year, starts were up from July of 2021 (0.5 per cent). Single-detached housing starts rose 1.6 per cent to 72.6k, while multi-family and others rose 0.9 per cent to 202.7k (SAAR).