WSJ -- Weak Canadian Retail Sales, Soft Inflation Underscore Faltering Economy .....................................
So ... (if one believes the "numbers") -- Canada is "sucking," Europe is "sucking," Japan is "sucking," the U.S. is "sucking," and (based on certain things such as lending data, falling demand for raw commodities, etc.) China may be "sucking" --
why do people keep acting surprised by (historically) low interest rates
and (lately) ...
weak commodities prices ?
Jon.
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February 22, 2013,
Weak Canadian Retail Sales, Soft Inflation Underscore Faltering Economy
By Karen Johnson
A double-dose of economic indicators Friday further cemented the view that the Canadian economy has hit a soft patch.
Canadian retail sales for December plunged a steeper-than-expected 2.1% to 38.62 billion Canadian dollars ($37.91 billion), for the biggest one-month decline since April 2010. The fall far outstripped the already pessimistic 0.3% decline that the market was expecting.
“The holidays weren’t very happy for retailers,” said Emanuella Enenajor, economist at CIBC World Markets. They were particularly dismal for auto dealers, who saw sales slip 6.4%.
Inflation figures for the month of January, meanwhile, showed further easing in price pressures, another reflection of the growing slack in the economy.
Consumers “were clearly in cautious mood” at the end of last year, said Krishen Rangasamy, senior economist at National Bank of Canada NA.T -0.08%, likely brought by the weaker employment picture suggested by some Canadian indicators.
Retail volumes dropped 1.6%, adding considerable downside risk to GDP in December, which looks poised to post a 0.2%-0.3% contraction. That would be the worst showing since at least February 2012 and would leave fourth-quarter growth substantially below the Bank of Canada’s 1% call.
Canada’s inflation rate, meanwhile, was at its softest in more than three years, with the headline consumer price index climbing just 0.5% in January from the year-earlier rate, softer than the prior month’s 0.8% reading and a touch softer than the market’s expected 0.6% advance.
The annual core rate, which strips out some more volatile items, climbed a modest 1.0%, in line with expectations.
The retail sales data are the final piece of the puzzle for fourth-quarter gross domestic product. That data, set for release next Friday, is widely expected to reflect Canada’s meager expansion in the final three months of 2012.
Copyright © 2013 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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