WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Amid market expectations the Fed may be forced to tighten monetary policy sooner than expected, top U.S. central bankers delivered a simple message to investors fixated on rising U.S. bond yields and price risks: Do not expect any changes until the economy is clearly improving.
FILE PHOTO: U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell arrives to speak to reporters after the Federal Reserve cut interest rates in an emergency move designed to shield the world’s largest economy from the impact of the coronavirus, during a news conference in Washington, U.S., March 3, 2020. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo
Testifying on Wednesday before the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee, Fed Chair Jerome Powell emphasized the U.S. central bank’s promise to get the economy back to full employment, with little worry about inflation unless prices begin rising in a persistent and troubling way.
“We are just being honest about the challenge,” Powell told lawmakers when asked about Fed projections that inflation will remain at or below the central bank’s 2% target through 2023.
The Fed has said it will not raise interest rates until inflation has exceeded 2% and “we believe we can do it, we believe we will do it. It may take more than three years,” Powell said. The current inflation rate by the Fed’s preferred measure is about 1.3%.
An expected jump in prices this spring, he said, may reflect post-pandemic supply bottlenecks, or a jump in demand as the economy reopens, but nothing to warrant a policy response.
Powell’s remarks led a broad central bank effort to convince the public and particularly bond market investors that it is not going to tighten monetary policy until it is clear people are getting back to work.
Yields on U.S. Treasury bonds have risen recently, with the risk of a potential spike in inflation in focus as the United States expands its coronavirus vaccination program, plans further fiscal spending and moves toward a post-pandemic reopening of the economy.
Financial markets are pricing in a better outlook for the U.S. economy, and “that’s appropriate,” Fed Vice Chair Richard Clarida told the American Chamber of Commerce in Australia, adding he had become more bullish himself in recent months.
What that does not mean, he said, is any imminent change to the Fed’s near-zero setting for short-term interest rates, or its bond-buying program.
“We to a person are going to be patient, we are going to be very careful, and we are going to be very, very transparent of our intentions well in advance of any decision we might make in the future,” Clarida said.
Clarida said he sees inflation rising above 2% in the spring but coming back down to about that level by year’s end.
Talk about a possible market “taper tantrum” in response to a change in the Fed’s bond-buying program is “premature,” Clarida said. A taper tantrum refers to a rapid run-up in bond yields based on changes in market expectations for Fed policy.
“We have a deep hole, there’s still a ways to go, and I think that settings of monetary policy are entirely appropriate not only now but, given my outlook for the economy, for the rest of the year,” he said.
‘FRONT-RUNNING THE FED’
While some observers believe the Fed may need to remove crisis-era policies sooner than expected, that argument ignores the Fed’s new jobs-first framework, said Tim Duy, chief U.S. economist with SGH Macro Advisors.
“If we try to force the Fed into the old framework, we will be front-running the Fed. The Fed will not validate such front-running,” Duy wrote of Powell’s appearances this week before House and Senate committees. “The Fed intends to maintain easy policy until the data pushes it in another direction and the Fed does not expect that to happen for a long, long time.”
The Fed has said it plans to keep buying $120 billion a month in U.S. government and government-backed securities “until substantial further progress has been made” toward the Fed’s maximum employment and inflation goals.
With the inflation target a long way off, Fed officials have focused on what they see as a major gap in the labor market as well – a scar that goes well beyond the 6.3% headline unemployment rate to include concerns about disproportionate joblessness among minorities and the exodus of women from the labor force.
In recent weeks, Powell, Clarida and others have used an alternate measure of around 10% that includes, for example, those who have left the labor force in recent months, and even that may fall short of the damage to workers the Fed hopes to repair.
Powell, who testified in Congress as part of his mandated twice-a-year appearances on Capitol Hill to provide updates on the economy, said the Fed needed to see tangible progress before shifting gears, not just anticipated improvement, and not premature bets from the bond market.
“We are not acting on forecasts,” Powell said. The policy “is what it sounds like – incoming actual data that sees us moving closer to our goals.”
Reporting by Howard Schneider and Ann Saphir; Editing by Peter Cooney
OTTAWA – Canada’s unemployment rate held steady at 6.5 per cent last month as hiring remained weak across the economy.
Statistics Canada’s labour force survey on Friday said employment rose by a modest 15,000 jobs in October.
Business, building and support services saw the largest gain in employment.
Meanwhile, finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing experienced the largest decline.
Many economists see weakness in the job market continuing in the short term, before the Bank of Canada’s interest rate cuts spark a rebound in economic growth next year.
Despite ongoing softness in the labour market, however, strong wage growth has raged on in Canada. Average hourly wages in October grew 4.9 per cent from a year ago, reaching $35.76.
Friday’s report also shed some light on the financial health of households.
According to the agency, 28.8 per cent of Canadians aged 15 or older were living in a household that had difficulty meeting financial needs – like food and housing – in the previous four weeks.
That was down from 33.1 per cent in October 2023 and 35.5 per cent in October 2022, but still above the 20.4 per cent figure recorded in October 2020.
People living in a rented home were more likely to report difficulty meeting financial needs, with nearly four in 10 reporting that was the case.
That compares with just under a quarter of those living in an owned home by a household member.
Immigrants were also more likely to report facing financial strain last month, with about four out of 10 immigrants who landed in the last year doing so.
That compares with about three in 10 more established immigrants and one in four of people born in Canada.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
The Canadian Institute for Health Information says health-care spending in Canada is projected to reach a new high in 2024.
The annual report released Thursday says total health spending is expected to hit $372 billion, or $9,054 per Canadian.
CIHI’s national analysis predicts expenditures will rise by 5.7 per cent in 2024, compared to 4.5 per cent in 2023 and 1.7 per cent in 2022.
This year’s health spending is estimated to represent 12.4 per cent of Canada’s gross domestic product. Excluding two years of the pandemic, it would be the highest ratio in the country’s history.
While it’s not unusual for health expenditures to outpace economic growth, the report says this could be the case for the next several years due to Canada’s growing population and its aging demographic.
Canada’s per capita spending on health care in 2022 was among the highest in the world, but still less than countries such as the United States and Sweden.
The report notes that the Canadian dental and pharmacare plans could push health-care spending even further as more people who previously couldn’t afford these services start using them.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
As Canadians wake up to news that Donald Trump will return to the White House, the president-elect’s protectionist stance is casting a spotlight on what effect his second term will have on Canada-U.S. economic ties.
Some Canadian business leaders have expressed worry over Trump’s promise to introduce a universal 10 per cent tariff on all American imports.
A Canadian Chamber of Commerce report released last month suggested those tariffs would shrink the Canadian economy, resulting in around $30 billion per year in economic costs.
More than 77 per cent of Canadian exports go to the U.S.
Canada’s manufacturing sector faces the biggest risk should Trump push forward on imposing broad tariffs, said Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters president and CEO Dennis Darby. He said the sector is the “most trade-exposed” within Canada.
“It’s in the U.S.’s best interest, it’s in our best interest, but most importantly for consumers across North America, that we’re able to trade goods, materials, ingredients, as we have under the trade agreements,” Darby said in an interview.
“It’s a more complex or complicated outcome than it would have been with the Democrats, but we’ve had to deal with this before and we’re going to do our best to deal with it again.”
American economists have also warned Trump’s plan could cause inflation and possibly a recession, which could have ripple effects in Canada.
It’s consumers who will ultimately feel the burden of any inflationary effect caused by broad tariffs, said Darby.
“A tariff tends to raise costs, and it ultimately raises prices, so that’s something that we have to be prepared for,” he said.
“It could tilt production mandates. A tariff makes goods more expensive, but on the same token, it also will make inputs for the U.S. more expensive.”
A report last month by TD economist Marc Ercolao said research shows a full-scale implementation of Trump’s tariff plan could lead to a near-five per cent reduction in Canadian export volumes to the U.S. by early-2027, relative to current baseline forecasts.
Retaliation by Canada would also increase costs for domestic producers, and push import volumes lower in the process.
“Slowing import activity mitigates some of the negative net trade impact on total GDP enough to avoid a technical recession, but still produces a period of extended stagnation through 2025 and 2026,” Ercolao said.
Since the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement came into effect in 2020, trade between Canada and the U.S. has surged by 46 per cent, according to the Toronto Region Board of Trade.
With that deal is up for review in 2026, Canadian Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Candace Laing said the Canadian government “must collaborate effectively with the Trump administration to preserve and strengthen our bilateral economic partnership.”
“With an impressive $3.6 billion in daily trade, Canada and the United States are each other’s closest international partners. The secure and efficient flow of goods and people across our border … remains essential for the economies of both countries,” she said in a statement.
“By resisting tariffs and trade barriers that will only raise prices and hurt consumers in both countries, Canada and the United States can strengthen resilient cross-border supply chains that enhance our shared economic security.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.
