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According to data just released by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), housing starts through April of this year have averaged 229,000 units on a seasonally adjusted annualized basis. Unit starts in each of the past three months have been revised downward by about 12,000 units. Through March 2008, and prior to the revisions, starts had been +9.0% versus the same period in 2007. Now, through April (and including the revisions), they are only +2.1% ahead of last year, with further easing expected in the months ahead.
The news about major happenings in the oil and gas sector just keeps on coming. Here are four of the latest and most interesting stories.
Enjoy the low interest rates that are currently in place. They are likely to prevail at least through the summer. However, the clock may well be ticking on how long they can last. The source of a future disturbance to the current tranquility is likely to be higher prices originating in the agricultural sector.
There is an elephant in the room when it comes to the unionized automaking sector in Canada. “All-in” wages (base rates plus supplements) are as much as one-third higher than they should be. This is relative to sister plants of the Detroit Three in the U.S. and new foreign-owned plants throughout North America and around the world
The April 2008 employment numbers, released on Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, correspond with what we already know about soft spots in the U.S. economy.
There has been a major casualty of the digital age that you may be noticing only peripherally. Has it entered your consciousness that there are fewer punning headlines anymore? There is a very good reason for this, having to do with “web crawlers” and “spiders”.
Yesterday, the Federal Reserve Board tweaked interest rates down slightly, while first-quarter growth numbers were a little better than expected.
The health of the agricultural sector in Canada is often overlooked, but it can have wide-ranging impacts on construction activity.
With the price of oil rocketing upward, it is important to keep in mind the pervasive impact that fossil fuels have on the construction industry. While these influences are varied and wide-ranging, they still break down into mainly supply and demand issues.
Statistics Canada reports that the industrial product price index (IPPI) was -0.8% year over year (y/y) and +0.1% month over month (m/m) in February 2008 (i.e., versus February 2007 and January 2008 respectively). These were both very modest changes. However, recent oil price hikes suggest that more radical cost and price adjustments are coming.
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