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Weak demand and uncertainty regarding future demand continue to weigh on firms’ investment decisions and near-term capacity planning, according to responses to the autumn survey.

An objective assessment of the effects of the appreciation of the Canadian dollar in 2003 and 2004 on exports and imports requires a detailed review of the numerous other factors which may have been at play. Dion, Laurence, and Zheng discuss the influences that have affected Canada's international trade over the past two years, including exchange rate movements, global and sector-specific shocks, constraints on the domestic supply of a few products, and competition from emerging economies, most notably, China. The analysis is complemented with econometric models developed at the Bank which provide statistically valid estimates of the contribution of the Canadian-dollar appreciation to the recent developments in exports and imports.

Recent findings on the term structure of equity and bond yields pose serious challenges to existing models of equilibrium asset pricing. This paper presents a new equilibrium model of subjective expectations to explain the joint historical dynamics of equity and bond yields (and their yield spreads).

The Bank’s new forecast calls for economic growth of 2.0 percent this year, 2.1 per cent in 2019 and 1.8 per cent in 2020.

We propose an uncovered expected returns parity (URP) condition for the bilateral spot exchange rate. URP implies that unilateral exchange rate equations are misspecified and that equity returns also affect exchange rates. Fama regressions provide evidence that URP is statistically preferred to uncovered interest rate parity (UIP) for nominal bilateral exchange rates between the US dollar and six countries (Australia, Canada, Japan, Norway, Switzerland and the UK) at the monthly frequency.

We build upon new developments in the international trade literature to construct a quantitative Ricardian framework similar to Caliendo and Parro (2015) to isolate and estimate the long-run economic impacts of tariff changes.

The Canadian economy is estimated to have grown by 1.8 per cent in 2013, and is projected to grow by 2.5 per cent in both 2014 and 2015, gradually returning to its full production capacity over the next two years.

While some forward-looking indicators have moved up, many firms cited concerns about demand over next year and pressures from increased competition.

Business sentiment has deteriorated markedly since the autumn survey, as the effects of the international financial crisis and the weak global economy intensified and spread to domestic demand. Almost all indicators are at their lowest level since the survey began in 1997.

Following growth of 1.7 per cent in 2012, the Canadian economy is expected to grow by 1.8 per cent in 2013 and 2.7 percent in 2014 and 2015, and to reach full capacity in mid-2015, as anticipated in the April Report.