Economy

Canada's economy was growing at 6.7% pace at the end of 2021 – CBC News

Published

3 years ago

March 1, 2022

The Canadian economy mostly started 2022 on strong footing, despite the impact of the Omicron coronavirus variant and protests that shut down key border crossings, as fourth quarter growth came in above expectations, official data showed on Tuesday.

Canada’s economy grew 6.7 per cent in the fourth quarter on an annualized basis, beating analyst expectations of 6.5 per cent, while January GDP most likely rose 0.2 per cent after stagnating in December, Statistics Canada data showed.

With January’s gain, which is a preliminary estimate, economic activity is now 0.6 per cent above pre-pandemic levels, the agency said.

“While the clouds darkened a bit before the end of the year … GDP posted a surprising 0.2 per cent advance in January despite the Omicron wave and all of the associated job losses,” said Royce Mendes, head of macro strategies at Desjardins Group.

“The economy likely built on that momentum in February, as the latest COVID wave turned a corner, which allowed for more reopenings across the country.”

The strong fourth quarter print came in above the Bank of Canada’s own January forecast of a fourth quarter gain of 5.8 per cent. The central bank is broadly expected to raise its key interest rate to 0.50 per cent when its meets on Wednesday.

“I don’t think the year-end numbers change the picture much for the bank other than to drive home the point that the economy was still managing to grind ahead even in the face of Omicron,” said Doug Porter, chief economist at BMO Capital Markets.

The Canadian dollar was trading 0.1 per cent higher at 78.96 U.S. cents.

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Economy

PBO projects deficit exceeded Liberals’ $40B pledge, economy to rebound in 2025

Published

3 days ago

October 17, 2024

Anne Joseph

OTTAWA – The parliamentary budget officer says the federal government likely failed to keep its deficit below its promised $40 billion cap in the last fiscal year.

However the PBO also projects in its latest economic and fiscal outlook today that weak economic growth this year will begin to rebound in 2025.

The budget watchdog estimates in its report that the federal government posted a $46.8 billion deficit for the 2023-24 fiscal year.

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland pledged a year ago to keep the deficit capped at $40 billion and in her spring budget said the deficit for 2023-24 stayed in line with that promise.

The final tally of the last year’s deficit will be confirmed when the government publishes its annual public accounts report this fall.

The PBO says economic growth will remain tepid this year but will rebound in 2025 as the Bank of Canada’s interest rate cuts stimulate spending and business investment.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.

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Economy

Statistics Canada says levels of food insecurity rose in 2022

Published

4 days ago

October 16, 2024

Anne Joseph

OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says the level of food insecurity increased in 2022 as inflation hit peak levels.

In a report using data from the Canadian community health survey, the agency says 15.6 per cent of households experienced some level of food insecurity in 2022 after being relatively stable from 2017 to 2021.

The reading was up from 9.6 per cent in 2017 and 11.6 per cent in 2018.

Statistics Canada says the prevalence of household food insecurity was slightly lower and stable during the pandemic years as it fell to 8.5 per cent in the fall of 2020 and 9.1 per cent in 2021.

In addition to an increase in the prevalence of food insecurity in 2022, the agency says there was an increase in the severity as more households reported moderate or severe food insecurity.

It also noted an increase in the number of Canadians living in moderately or severely food insecure households was also seen in the Canadian income survey data collected in the first half of 2023.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct 16, 2024.

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Economy

Statistics Canada says manufacturing sales fell 1.3% to $69.4B in August

Published

5 days ago

October 16, 2024

Anne Joseph

OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says manufacturing sales in August fell to their lowest level since January 2022 as sales in the primary metal and petroleum and coal product subsectors fell.

The agency says manufacturing sales fell 1.3 per cent to $69.4 billion in August, after rising 1.1 per cent in July.

The drop came as sales in the primary metal subsector dropped 6.4 per cent to $5.3 billion in August, on lower prices and lower volumes.

Sales in the petroleum and coal product subsector fell 3.7 per cent to $7.8 billion in August on lower prices.

Meanwhile, sales of aerospace products and parts rose 7.3 per cent to $2.7 billion in August and wood product sales increased 3.8 per cent to $3.1 billion.

Overall manufacturing sales in constant dollars fell 0.8 per cent in August.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2024.

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