Here you will find Candian Articles relating the Market Insights Community.
Slowing growth of overall gross domestic product (GDP), relative to the number of hours worked, pushed labour productivity down 0.8% in fourth-quarter 2008, following a 0.1% increase in the third quarter.
According to Manpower Canada’s most recent Employment Outlook, hiring plans in the second quarter of 2008 cooled sharply compared to second-quarter 2007.
According to recently released data by Statistics Canada, total industry in Canada operated at a capacity utilization rate of only 81.8% in fourth-quarter 2007. This was the lowest utilization rate in ten years. The major reason for the weakness was a manufacturing sector that was shackled by the weight of a too-highly-valued Canadian dollar. The highest utilization rate for total industry in Canada in this decade was 87.1% achieved in the fourth quarter of 2000, just before the dot.com-induced downturn.
Although they account for only 8% of the total stock of public assets, bridges and overpasses are critical to the nation’s overall economic health.
It is a little early in the year to be drawing profound conclusions from the year-to-date housing start figures for Canada’s 33 Census Metropolitan Areas (CMAs). Nevertheless, this article includes some observations that encompass the latest numbers on housing starts, home prices and labour markets. At this point in the year, it is probably best to concentrate on the largest cities − Toronto, Montréal, Vancouver, Ottawa-Gatineau, Calgary and Edmonton.
It has become clear that we all have to gain a better understanding of financial markets. The following is my understanding/interpretation of how futures and derivatives markets work, with some extra comments about interest rate “swapping.” I’ve reduced this to the basics, but I think you will still get a sense of how complicated this can be. My word of caution to individual investors is that there are sharks in these waters, and it might be better to stay on dry land.
It is widely-recognized that the 50% increase in the value of the Canadian dollar versus the U.S. dollar over the past five years has created major challenges for Canada’s exporters.
The accompanying table shows CanaData’s latest square footage forecasts for ICI (industrial, commercial and institutional) construction in Canada, by region, out to 2010. The 2008 commercial starts figure has been bumped up a bit since the last forecast in January and institutional starts have been cut by the same amount. The net result leaves the total square footage forecast for 2008 at 79.5 million, down from 89.1 in 2007. A further decline is expected in 2009 (73.0 million) before recovery in 2010 (76.5 million).
Retail sales in Canada continue to perform very well. The year-over-year level of actual retail sales in January 2008 was +7.5%. The three-month smoothed level was +6.6%. Lying behind the retail spending strength are continuing healthy numbers on job growth in the country as a whole and a level of housing starts that is showing no significant moderation so far, unlike in the U.S. This is important because a lot of retail spending is home related. Canadian consumers are still spending “like a good thing”.
The year-over-year increase in the all-items Consumer Price Index in Canada dropped for the third straight month in February 2008 to only +1.8%. Furthermore, the “core” inflation rate was also quite restrained in the latest month, at only +1.5%. Therefore, both key measures of inflation were below the mid-point of the Bank of Canada’s target range that runs from +1.0% to +3.0%. Canada’s price-change performance is less than one-half of the overall inflation rate in the United States.
