Canadian economy ends year with a bang as growth blows past expectations
OTTAWA Canada's economy exited 2013 with a bit of a bang, but our biggest trading partner and the one we're relying on the most to boost growth here ended with more of a whimper.
The relatively impressive gain in this country, both in the fourth quarter and for the whole year, overshot expectations and that could silence talk of the need for lower borrowing costs to stimulate growth.
just the weather Has a truly awful winter become our economic scapegoat?While mother nature might be a convenient scapegoat, the weather can be blamed for all the winter economic woes. Read on
Canada's gross domestic product the widest measure of economic performance grew at an annualized 2.9% between October and December, Statistics Canada said Friday,hollister, while also delivering upward revisions for two of the previous three quarters.
Economists had expected a weaker 2.5% advance in the fourth quarter, which followed a 2.7% gain between July and September. Statistics Canada also adjusted second quarter growth to 2.2% from an earlier estimate of 1.6%, and raised the January to March reading to 2.9% from 2.3%.
Last year's quarterly revisions were due mainly to higher than estimated oil and crop output,abercrombie and fitch, the federal agency said.
For all of 2013, GDP grew 2%, compared to average forecasts of around 1.7%. That rate would have matched the overall performance in 2012.
"The firmer results leave a smaller output gap [the difference between potential and actual output] than the Bank of Canada estimated and likely further reduce the already remote odds of a rate cut," said Douglas Porter, chief economists at BMO Capital Markets. economy grew at slower pace last quarter than expected,celine handbags, but spring thaw promises reboundCMHC to raise mortgage loan insurance premiums for home owners starting in May
On a quarterly basis, business investment overall was down 1.3% annualized between October and December a pattern that both Ottawa and the Bank of Canada have been anxious to see turn around while consumer spending rose 3.1%, as heavily indebted households continued to provide the balk of the country's growth.
"While [Friday's] GDP report is a bit of a mixed bag, the bigger picture is that the Canadian economy looks to have had better momentum than widely appreciated through much of 2013," Mr. Porter said.
The Bank of Canada has been stuck in neutral for the past four months,timberland, with no stated bias foreither raising or cutting its trend setting lending rate, which has been at 1% since September 2010.
Policymakers are not likely to adjust that level either way until mid 2015, at the earliest,polo ralph, depending on the economy's performance this year and next. In other words,oakley, don't anticipate anything new in their regularly scheduled rate statement in Ottawa on Wednesday.
Looking farther a field, the Bank of Canada is forecasting economic growth of 2.5% for both this year and in 2015.
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty,coach outlet store, in his Feb. 11 budget,uggs outlet, was less optimistic,wholesale true religion jeans, predicting a 2.3% rise in 2014 but matching the bank's 2.5% estimate for next year when the Conservative government has promised to eliminate its budget deficit.
Statistics Canada said Friday that the last month of 2013 produced a negative reading, down 0.5% the biggest declined since March 2009 when the economy contracted by 0.7% and followed five straight monthly increases.
The Ottawa based agency said much of the December contraction reflected the impact of a harsh winter on retail sales, which resulted in a 2.1% drop in the sector. That was the weakest performance since June, when there was a 1.2% decline during the Alberta floods and theQuebec labour disruption.
"We normally look to December GDP by industry data to get a sense of what to expect for GDP in the coming quarter," said Sonya Gulati, senior economist at TD Economics.
"Inclement weather will negatively depress the Q1 performance. What more, the large stockpile of inventories will need to be depleted eventually, thereby limiting the rate of expansion," she said.
"[But] if we step back from this quarterly perspective,reebok shoes, the economic themes both here and abroad playing out indicate that 2014 is shaping up to be better than 2013."
"The combination of inclement weather and a likely reduction in inventories sets up for the pace of growth to temporarily slow in the firstquarter," said Dawn Desjardins, at RBC Economics.
"That said, government spending is likely to recover from Q4 [partial government] shutdown related drop, while the solid momentum in consumer spending is likely to be maintained," she said.

burberry sale 5 Weird Facts About the Oscars

sunglasses outlet 3 billion surplus in the 2014

true religion outlet online Alabama Boy Bags 'Hogz

louboutin Club notes

marc jacobs handbags A... Up to my Debate with Ben