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This article describes the major trends in the growth of labour productivity in Canada since the early 1960s and summarizes our current knowledge about the causes of the historical patterns. Particular attention is given to the period since the mid-1990s during which productivity growth has been significantly higher in the United States than in Canada. The author reviews the empirical evidence on the contribution of information and communication technology to the recent difference between Canadian and U.S. rates of productivity growth. Other determinants of a country's productivity performance, such as human capital formation and openness to international trade, are also examined. The article concludes with an assessment of the prospects for an increase in the trend rate of productivity growth in Canada over the coming years.

The Bank of Canada today announced that it is maintaining its target for the overnight rate at 1/2 per cent. The Bank Rate is correspondingly 3/4 per cent and the deposit rate is 1/4 per cent.

Business confidence has softened, according to results from the third-quarter 2022 Business Outlook Survey and the July through October 2022 Business Leaders’ Pulse surveys. Many firms expect slower sales growth as interest rates rise and demand growth shifts closer to pre-pandemic levels. Early signs suggest that pressures on prices and wages have started to ease, but firms’ inflation expectations remain high.

t the time of the April Monetary Policy Report, it was evident that a robust economic recovery was underway in Canada.

Results from the Business Outlook Survey and the Business Leaders’ Pulse show that with high interest rates and soft demand, firms’ sales growth has slowed over the past 12 months. Firms are less optimistic about current business conditions than they were last quarter, but they expect their sales growth to stabilize in the coming year. With competition returning and demand remaining soft, businesses’ pricing behaviour is slowly returning to normal.

Taken together, responses to the spring survey indicate that, following a recent slowing in economic activity, firms expect business conditions to remain challenging over the next 12 months.

Speaking a day after we decided to keep the policy interest rate at 2.75%, Deputy Governor Sharon Kozicki discusses how we make better decisions by looking at a variety of data and talking with Canadians.

For the first time in two years, firms, on balance, reported an improvement in their past sales activity. While the balances of opinion on future sales growth and investment are lower than in recent surveys, and firms are concerned about global uncertainties, overall, they are positive about the outlook for business activity over the next 12 months.

The year 2006 marked a turning point for the Bank of Canada. We successfully completed our medium-term plan, The Way Forward, and began writing a fresh chapter in the Bank’s history based on a new three-year plan. In this annual report, we do more than give an accounting of past achievements. We also provide forward-looking information on the plans and priorities in our new medium-term plan. And as we advance, we are always mindful of the Bank’s original mandate, set out more than 70 years ago, to “promote the economic and financial welfare of Canada.”

The underwhelming recovery from the global financial crisis has challenged policy-makers to better understand the factors weighing on growth and to deal with greater uncertainty, Bank of Canada Senior Deputy Governor Carolyn Wilkins said in Toronto today. To conduct monetary policy, the Bank needs to assess how much of the slow growth is due to […]