Canada
U.S. and Canadian Data
November 23, 2010
Revised U.S. third-quarter national income accounts were released today. GDP growth was revised to 2.5% from 2.0% annualized. Consumption, investment, government spending and exports were revised upward. Imports and the boost from inventory building were revised downward. The personal consumption price deflator increased 1.0% annualized. It’s now been three years since the onset of the […] More
Today’s U.S. and Canadian Data
November 10, 2010
Four indicators of interest were released at 13:30 GMT today: U.S. and Canadian trade figures for September, U.S. jobless insurance claims and U.S. import and export prices. The downward trend in new U.S. jobless insurance claims, a proxy for the layoff rate, has resumed after a roughly 11-month pause dating back to the autumn of […] More
Today’s U.S. and Canadian Data
October 14, 2010
The U.S. August trade deficit of $46.2 billion split the difference between the June and July shortfalls of $49.8 billion and $42.6 billion and so seems pretty representative of the present underlying trend. The year-to-date deficit was $100 billion greater than in January-August 2009, a deterioration of $12.5 billion per month. China and OPEC each […] More
U.S. and Canadian Labor Markets Lost Momentum Last Quarter
October 8, 2010
U.S. non-farm payroll jobs slumped 218K in the third quarter following a 570K advance in the second quarter. Canada’s labor market, where employment had shot up 226.6K in the second quarter, added only 19.9K positions in 3Q. In September alone, both economies lost jobs, Canada for the second time in three months and the United […] More
North American GDP and Unemployment
September 30, 2010
Canada and the United States released subdued GDP figures today. Canadian July GDP slipped 0.1%. Although negative growth in July had been expected, this was the first decline in eleven months, and weakness was pervasive. Manufacturing and construction respectively contracted by 0.7% and 0.5%. Energy, utilities, retail and wholesale turnover fell by 0.6%, 0.4%, 0.5% […] More
A Mixed Bag of U.S., Canadian and Brazilian Data Releases Today
September 14, 2010
CANADA Labor productivity fell 0.8% last quarter, the most in over 2-1/2 years and the first drop in three quarters. Canadian productivity growth has been no match for its U.S. counterpart, averaging 0.6% per annum in the five years to 2009 versus a 1.7% per annum pace of rise in U.S. productivity over that span. […] More
Labor Market Better in Canada than the United States
September 10, 2010
Canadian employment rose 35.8K last month, which is the same percentage increase as a 271K gain in the U.S. labor market. U.S. jobs contracted by 54K for a second straight time in August, by comparison. Over the past five months, Canadian jobs expanded at a 3.6% annualized rate, three times as fast as the increase […] More
Similar Canadian and U.S. Growth Trends
August 31, 2010
Canadian real GDP advanced 2.0% at a seasonally adjusted annualized rate (saar) in the second quarter and by 3.4% between 2Q09 and 2Q10. These results, announced earlier today, resemble U.S. trends. The compositions of Canadian and U.S. growth were less similar. In the comparative table below, “Cons” is an abbreviation for personal consumption, “Govt” stands […] More
North American Data This Monday Morning
August 30, 2010
The Canadian current account deficit widened 30.2% last quarter to CAD 11.0 billion (equivalent to around 2.6% of GDP) as the trade balance swung into the red for the first time since 3Q09. After the start of the world financial panic, the current account weakened from a CAD 15.6 billion surplus in 2007 to a […] More
U.S. and Canadian Data Releases: Off the Track Observations
August 6, 2010
The U.S. unemployment rate has been 9.4% or greater for fifteen consecutive months, one-month short of the 16-month streak in which such occurred in 1982-3. The broader unemployment/underemployment/discouraged worker rate of 16.5% is much higher now than then, and that figures is most likely well under-stated at present. U.S. private employment went up just 51K […] More
