Search

Results from the Business Outlook Survey and the Business Leaders’ Pulse indicate that firms’ sentiment has improved. Responses were mostly gathered before the start of the war in the Middle East. Fewer businesses reported being affected by trade tensions with the United States, and many expect sales growth to improve. Most businesses plan to maintain or slightly increase current staffing levels and investment spending. One-year-ahead inflation expectations have ticked up slightly. Results of follow-up calls made after the start of Iran war suggest that many firms are already facing higher input costs related to the war due to rising prices for energy, fertilizer and freight.

11:30 (ET)
The Business Outlook Survey is a summary of interviews conducted by the Bank's regional offices with business leaders from about 100 firms, selected in accordance with the composition of Canada's gross domestic product. The Canadian Survey of Consumer Expectations is a quarterly survey aimed at measuring household views of inflation, the labour market and household finances, as well as topical issues of interest to the Bank of Canada.

Results of the first-quarter 2026 survey, conducted before the war in the Middle East, show that concerns about high prices and economic uncertainty continue to weigh on consumers’ spending plans. Even so, consumers, particularly those working in trade-sensitive sectors, became less negative about spending than in the previous quarter, and the CSCE indicator rose slightly reflecting this improvement in spending plans. Concerns about job losses remain elevated and increased among workers in sectors where artificial intelligence poses a greater risk of task replacement. Results of a special survey conducted after the war in the Middle East began suggest that most households expect the conflict to weaken the Canadian economy and raise prices.

Tiff Macklem, Governor of the Bank of Canada, held a virtual roundtable with journalists today from the sidelines of the IMF meetings in Washington, DC.

Tiff Macklem, in his capacity as Chair of the Financial Stability Board’s Standing Committee for the Assessment of Vulnerabilities, gave an interview to Laura Noonan of Bloomberg News.

Rising housing costs are leading to an increasing share of first-time homebuyers seeking financial support from their parents. Specifically, Canada has experienced a noticeable rise in instances of parents co-signing mortgages with their adult children. This practice allows buyers to purchase more expensive homes—but it can also make both parties vulnerable to financial disruptions.

As the economy emerges from a crisis, macroeconomic policy confronts a dilemma: a protracted stimulus can foster a more inclusive labor market recovery, yet risks igniting inflation that ultimately undermines workers’ welfare through real income erosion. This tension amplifies in the presence of the ZLB and aggregate capacity constraints. We embed this insight into a quantitative model of the US economy.

The Bank of Canada published its Reconciliation Action Plan in the autumn of 2024. As of January 2026, we have started over 75% of the projects supporting the plan’s five goals and have completed almost 15% of them.