TEC Canada Releases CEO Confidence Index Q4

“The TEC CEO Confidence Survey measures both current performance and future prospects. It is a barometer for the overall economy as well as for individual companies. It gives almost a real-time reading on what business leaders are thinking in Canada’s small to medium-sized business sector.”

– Dr. Peter Andersen, Economist, on the TEC Canada CEO Confidence Index.

The TEC Canada CEO Confidence Index is a quarterly survey measuring the confidence of Canadian business leaders of small-to-medium enterprises. The results provide insight into the challenges and opportunities faced by leaders and their confidence in the Canadian business environment. The TEC Canada members surveyed are CEOs and business owners of predominantly small-to-medium enterprises with employees primarily between 50 to 500 and annual revenue of between $1 million to $500 million.

The TEC Canada CEO Confidence Index Q4 2020 was conducted from September 15th, 2020 to September 30th, 2020, and had over 200 Canadian participants in the research.

To read the full report, click here.

Bank of Canada Plans to Keep Interest Rate Near Zero Until 2023

Assuming no widespread lockdowns are returning – and that there is a vaccine by 2022 – the Bank of Canada has announced it doesn’t plan to change its benchmark interest rate until 2023 – when inflation is predicted to return to 2%.

As reported by CBC:

The bank outlined a fairly bleak assessment of the worst-case scenario when it laid out its last Monetary Report in July. But the roughly eight months since COVID-19 began in Canada have given the bank a clearer picture of how things are shaking out, even if the picture isn’t always rosy.

“With more than six months since the onset of the pandemic, the Bank has gained a better understanding of how containment measures and support programs affect the Canadian and global economies,” the bank said.

“This, along with more information on medical developments related to COVID-19, allows the bank to now make a reasonable set of assumptions to underpin a base-case forecast.”

For more information about the Bank of Canada’s recent decisions, click here.

October Employment Statistics

Statistics Canada will release its Labour Force Survey for October on Friday, November 6th. Canada’s employment levels grew in September, as the Canadian economy added 378,000 jobs, bringing overall employment to within 720,000 of pre-pandemic levels. In the last update from StatsCan, it was reported that the unemployment rate has fallen to nine percent.