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BoC: Near-term business prospects continue to be robust

Below are key takeaways from the Bank of Canada's recently published Business Outlook Survey—Autumn 2018.

  • The balance of opinion on past sales growth moved down but remains positive, indicating rising sales growth over the past 12 months.
  • The indicator of future sales growth increased and is positive, suggesting a faster pace of growth over the next 12 months.
  • Firms’ positive sales outlook is underpinned by a solid, broad-based improvement in recent sales indicators.
  • Still, many businesses expect their future sales to be limited by capacity constraints (frequently labour-related), competition and regulation.
  • After edging down in recent surveys, the balance of opinion on investment intentions rebounded to a high level in the autumn survey.
  • Following a steady increase over several surveys, the balance of opinion on employment intentions receded but remains positive across all regions and sectors

Author

Eren Sengezer

As an economist at heart, Eren Sengezer specializes in the assessment of the short-term and long-term impacts of macroeconomic data, central bank policies and political developments on financial assets.

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