What’s spending slowdown? Retail sales suggest Canadians aren’t ready to quit shopping
Up to date retail sales numbers from Statistics Canada on Wednesday show that despite high prices and dire warnings about debt loads, Canadians remain in the mood to shop.
The data agency reported Wednesday that retailers took in $65.9 billion in April. That’s an increase of 1.1 per cent from March’s level.
Just about every type of store booked higher sales during the month, with the exception of furniture, electronics and appliances retailers, where sales shrank by 1.6 per cent from March’s level.
So-called core retail sales, which strip out volatile items like gas, cars and car parts, actually increased…
Uh-oh. More good news that may be bad for your economic health
At first glance, the response of “sold over asking” real estate signs may seem like an encouraging signal for the Canadian economy, especially for highly invested homeowners who have watched prices fall from last year’s highs.
But a growing number of economists worry that a recent series of indicators, the latest being Wednesday’s rise in Canadian retail sales, may instead be a red flag for central bankers, leading them to more rate hikes that could ultimately make many Canadians feel miserable.
With each new smidgen of optimistic data, money market traders point to a rising chance that central bankers will…
The Bank of Canada is expected to raise interest rates once more, cap at 5%
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The Bank of Canada will raise borrowing costs by another 25 basis points in coming months before capping its tightening cycle, economists said.
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Canada’s central bank will increase its key overnight rate to five per cent in the third quarter, according to a monthly Bloomberg survey of 25 economists. That would be the highest level since 2001.
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The outlook still more or less shows the economy headed for a so-called soft landing as policy makers push rates deeply into restrictive territory. Analysts raised their expectations for growth in 2023 to 1.3 per cent from…
Inflation dip won’t be enough to stop another bank rate hike: analysts
OTTAWA –
Forecasters are expecting the Bank of Canada to move ahead with another interest rate hike in July, even as they expect the annual inflation rate to slow significantly.
Statistics Canada is set to release its consumer price index report for May on Wednesday, providing the most up-to-date inflation reading ahead of the Bank of Canada’s interest rate decision on July 12.
“I think this release is probably going to be a fairly optimistic one for inflation, in the sense that we are expecting the inflation rate to go down below four per cent,” said James Orlando, TD’s director…
Bell asks CRTC to drop local news requirements
TORONTO –
BCE Inc.’s media arm is asking the federal telecommunications regulator to waive local news and Canadian programming requirements for its television stations, saying its obligations are based on outdated market realities.
In an application to the CRTC filed June 14, Bell Media requested the regulator drop requirements for spending on local news and on the number of hours per week that stations are required to broadcast locally reflecting news in major and smaller markets.
The application was filed the same day Bell announced it was cutting 1,300 positions, shutting or selling nine radio stations and closing two foreign…
Instant Brands, maker of Instant Pot and Pyrex cookware, files for bankruptcy
The company that makes kitchen staples like CorningWare, Pyrex and the Instant Pot has entered bankruptcy proceedings in the US and Canada.
Illinois-based Instant Brands said Monday that it has “initiated a voluntary court-supervised Chapter 11 process,” due to an unmanageable debt load.
“Tightening of credit terms and higher interest rates impacted our liquidity levels and made our capital structure unsustainable,” CEO Ben Gadbois said in a news release.
In court filings, the company says it generated operating cash flows of just $17.9 million US in the first three months of the year. That relatively large figure is a sharp…
Higher airfares likely upshot of Sunwing-WestJet integration, experts say – Business News
Higher airfares on way
The Canadian Press – Jun 19, 2023 / 9:35 am | Stories: 432620
Photo: The Canadian Press
Experts say WestJet’s decision to shut down Sunwing Airlines and fold it into its main operations will mean less service and higher fares — particularly in Western Canada and smaller cities across the country.
Sunwing told its employees it was being absorbed by its new owner on Wednesday, less than a week after WestJet announced plans to shutter discount subsidiary Swoop.
John Gradek, who teaches at McGill University’s aviation management program, says the latest move is bad news for…
British brewers sell weaker beer but don’t cut prices
LONDON –
Brewers in the United Kingdom are cutting the alcohol content — but not the price — of several of their most popular beers in what’s been described as another example of “shrinkflation.”
Greene King, a major UK brewer and pub chain, has cut the ABV, or alcohol content, of its popular Old Speckled Hen pale ale to 4.8% from 5%, a spokesperson for Greene King told CNN.
In March, the country’s oldest brewer, Shepherd Neame, slashed the ABV of its bottled Spitfire and Bishop’s Finger ales to 4.2% and 5.2% respectively, from 4.5% and 5.4%, a spokesperson said.…
