By Ketki Saxena
Investing.com -- It was a short week on the TSX and for Canada's economic agencies this week, with a national holiday on Monday for Family Day. U.S. Markets were also closed Monday for President’s Day.
Canadian Economic Data: tightening labour market but little wage growth; manufacturing sales
Major Canadian data this week included Canadian Job Vacancies for December. StatsCan reported 896,140 job vacancies, up 2.5% (21,445) from November, and up 87.9% (419,280) over the same period last year.
Unemployment is also falling, and has fallen to pre-pandemic levels. Despite a significantly tighter labour market, which should contribute to wage growth, average salaries in Canada saw little improvement from the last month.
Despite similar labour market conditions and soaring inflation in both countries, the U.S. is seeing huge wage growth, in a far more typically correlation to tightening labour market conditions than Canada is currently experiencing.
Manufacturing sales (flash estimate) data was the only other major national economic release this week. As per Statistics Canada, advance sales for the manufacturing sector from January indicate a 1.3% increase, largely driven by higher sales in the petroleum and coal products, wood products, as well as the beverage and tobacco industries.
British Columbia and Alberta Budgets
On a provincial level, B.C. and Alberta’s both released their 2022 budgets and updates. Both economies are undergoing a strong post-pandemic recovery.
The B.C. government released its budget on Tuesday. Despite Covid-19 lockdowns and recent- climate related disasters, the province’s economy expanded by an estimated 5.0% in 2021 and is forecast to expand by 4.0% in 2022 and 2.5% in 2023. Budget 2022’s three-year fiscal plan presents declining deficits, with a projected $5.5-billion deficit in 2022-23 declining to $3.2 billion in 2024-25.
Alberta also released its budget this week on Thursday, posting a balanced budget for the first time in over a decade. The province is also targeting surpluses for each of the next 3 fiscal years. Alberta’s economic recovery, which far exceeded expectations for the year, has been powered largely by surging energy prices. The province’s total revenue is estimated to be $62.6 billion in 2022-23, $900 million higher than the forecast for 2021-22. Alberta now expects a surplus of $500 million for 2022-23 (compared to the previously forecasted deficit of $3.2 billion for 2021-22). In 2022, real GDP is expected to grow by 5.4%, up from the 5.1% forecast at mid-year.
U.S. Economic Data
Major economic data south of the border included Q4 GDP, U.S. initial jobless claims, the U.S. Conference Board consumer confidence index, and new home sales.
All currencies CAD, unless noted otherwise.