Potential Output in Canada: 2018 Reassessment Staff analytical note 2018-10 Andrew Agopsowicz, Dany Brouillette, Bassirou Gueye, Julien McDonald-Guimond, Jeffrey Mollins, Youngmin Park This note summarizes the reassessment of potential output, conducted by the Bank of Canada for the April 2018 Monetary Policy Report. Overall, the profile for potential output growth is expected to remain flat at 1.8 per cent between 2018 and 2020 and 1.9 per cent in 2021. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes JEL Code(s): E, E0, E00, E2, E22, E23, E24, E3, E37, E6 Research Theme(s): Monetary policy, Real economy and forecasting, Structural challenges, Demographics and labour supply, Digitalization and productivity
Assessing Global Potential Output Growth: April 2018 Staff analytical note 2018-9 Richard Beard, Anne-Katherine Cormier, Michael Francis, Katerina Gribbin, Justin-Damien Guénette, Christopher Hajzler, James Ketcheson, Kun Mo, Louis Poirier, Peter Selcuk, Kristina Hess This note presents our estimates of potential output growth for the global economy through 2020. Overall, we expect global potential output growth to remain broadly stable over the projection horizon, averaging 3.3 per cent, although there is considerable uncertainty surrounding these estimates. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes JEL Code(s): E, E1, E10, E2, E20, O, O4 Research Theme(s): Monetary policy, Real economy and forecasting, Structural challenges, Demographics and labour supply, Digitalization and productivity
Personal Experiences and House Price Expectations: Evidence from the Canadian Survey of Consumer Expectations Staff analytical note 2018-8 Mikael Khan, Matthieu Verstraete In this work, we use novel Canadian survey data to study how expectations of future changes in house prices are influenced by personal experiences. We find that recently experienced changes in local house prices are routinely extrapolated into expectations of year-ahead changes in national house prices. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes Research Theme(s): Financial system, Household and business credit, Monetary policy, Real economy and forecasting
Did Canadian Corporate Bond Funds Increase their Exposures to Risks? Staff analytical note 2018-7 Rohan Arora, Nadeem Merali, Guillaume Ouellet Leblanc Canadian corporate bond mutual funds have rapidly increased in number and size in recent years. Their holdings have also become riskier, increasing their exposures to credit risk, interest rate risk and liquidity risk. We also briefly discuss financial stability implications. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes JEL Code(s): G, G1, G2, G20, G23 Research Theme(s): Financial system, Financial institutions and intermediation, Financial stability and systemic risk, Household and business credit
Asymmetric Risks to the Economic Outlook Arising from Financial System Vulnerabilities Staff analytical note 2018-6 Thibaut Duprey When financial system vulnerabilities are elevated, they can give rise to asymmetric risks to the economic outlook. To illustrate this, I consider the economic outlook presented in the Bank of Canada’s October 2017 Monetary Policy Report in the context of two key financial system vulnerabilities: high levels of household indebtedness and housing market imbalances. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes JEL Code(s): C, C0, C01, C1, C11, C15, E, E1, E17, E3, E32, E37, E4, E44, E47, E5, E58, E6, E66, G, G0, G01, G1, G18 Research Theme(s): Financial system, Financial stability and systemic risk, Household and business credit, Models and tools, Econometric, statistical and computational methods, Monetary policy, Real economy and forecasting
Blockchain Revolution Without the Blockchain Staff analytical note 2018-5 Hanna Halaburda The technology behind blockchain has attracted a lot of attention. However, this technology is for the most part not well understood. There is no consensus on what benefits it may bring or on how it may fail. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes JEL Code(s): D, D8, G, G2, O, O3, O33 Research Theme(s): Money and payments, Digital assets and fintech, Payment and financial market infrastructures, Structural challenges, Digitalization and productivity
Is the Excess Bond Premium a Leading Indicator of Canadian Economic Activity? Staff analytical note 2018-4 Maxime Leboeuf, Daniel Hyun This note investigates whether Canadian corporate spreads and the excess bond premium (EBP) lead Canadian economic activity. Indeed, we find that corporate spreads precede changes in real gross domestic product (GDP) in Canada over the subsequent year. The EBP accounts for most of this property. Further, an unanticipated increase in the Canadian EBP forecasts a deterioration of domestic macroeconomic conditions: a 10-basis-point increase results in a fall in both GDP and consumer price index (CPI) of 0.4 per cent and 0.1 per cent, respectively, over three years. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes JEL Code(s): E, E3, E32, E4, E44, G, G1, G12 Research Theme(s): Financial markets and funds management, Market functioning, Monetary policy, Real economy and forecasting
Non-linéarité de la courbe de Phillips : un survol de la littérature Staff analytical note 2018-3 Renaud St-Cyr The paper reviews evidence from the economic literature on the nature of the relationship between excess capacity and inflation, better known as the Phillips curve. In particular, we examine the linearity of this relationship. This is an important issue in the current economic context in which advanced economies are approaching or exceed their potential output. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes JEL Code(s): E, E3, E31, E32 Research Theme(s): Monetary policy, Inflation dynamics and pressures, Real economy and forecasting
Wages: Measurement and Key Drivers Staff analytical note 2018-2 Dany Brouillette, Jonathan Lachaine, Benoit Vincent Available sources of hourly wage data in Canada sometimes send conflicting signals about wage growth. This note thus has two objectives: first, we develop a wage measure—the wage-common—to better capture the (underlying) wage pressures reflecting the common trend across the available data sources. Second, we re-examine the relationship between wage growth and macro drivers (labour market slack and labour productivity). Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes JEL Code(s): C, C3, C38, J, J3 Research Theme(s): Models and tools, Econometric, statistical and computational methods, Monetary policy, Inflation dynamics and pressures, Structural challenges, Demographics and labour supply
Merchant Acceptance of Cash and Credit Cards at the Point of Sale Staff analytical note 2018-1 Ben Fung, Kim Huynh, Kerry Nield, Angelika Welte Recent data show that the use of credit cards in Canada has been increasing, while the use of cash has been declining. At the same time, only two-thirds of small or medium-sized businesses accept credit cards. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes JEL Code(s): C, C2, D, D1, E, E4, E41 Research Theme(s): Models and tools, Econometric, statistical and computational methods, Money and payments, Cash and bank notes, Retail payments