A light day on the economic calendar:
Canadian wholesale trade crushed expectations in February, climbing 1.6%. Analysts had predicted a 0.3% increase. (January’s figures were revised to a larger 1.1% decline.) February’s sales volume also popped-up 2.2%. The broadly-based increase was driven by the auto sector.
Today’s lighter load of economic data may be the new normal. The number-crunchers are dealing with a crunch of their own. The Federal budget cut Statistics Canada’s funding by about 8%. And the overall austerity in the budget means traditional revenues won’t be coming in from other departments. StatsCan says it will stop producing its monthly new motor vehicles sales reports (although it will continue to collect the data). And its index of leading economic indicators is expected to disappear soon.
Tags: Commercial, Mortgages, Apartment, Multi-family, Financing, Lending, Canada, Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal, Toronto, Halifax, CMHC