Data released on Friday showed that the Canadian economy stagnated during April, against expectations of a 0.2% expansion. Analysts at CIBC point out that the Canadian economy wasn't quite as resilient to the headwinds it was facing in April as was first indicated.
“While the strike by federal workers has created some noise within the data, the underlying trend still appears to show a weakening of growth following the very swift start to the year. With absolute levels of activity getting closer to pre-pandemic norms in some of the sectors that have been recovering over the past year, and with interest rate hikes still having a lagged impact, growth rates for the economy as a whole will likely weaken further during the second half of the year and into 2024.”
“For now we retain our call for no hike in July, and a final 25bp move in September, but the BoC's surveys later this morning and labour force survey next week could still tip the balance on that call.”