Here’s the Overview
- Responses to the winter survey suggest that the global economic outlook and concerns about demand continue to weigh on firms’ expectations for business activity.
- While the indicator of past sales activity has held up, the balance of opinion on future sales has turned slightly negative, as firms in Western Canada expect sales growth to slow from the recent strong pace and those elsewhere generally expect growth to remain modest. Firms still expect to increase investment and employment, although the balances of opinion remain below the high levels reached earlier in the year.
- Reports of capacity pressures and labour short- ages are little changed, with somewhat greater pressure in the West largely offset by less pressure elsewhere. On balance, firms expect input prices to rise at about the same pace over the next 12 months and output prices to rise at a slower rate. Inflation expectations are essentially unchanged.
- Businesses no longer report a net easing in credit conditions.
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