this post was submitted on 29 Feb 2024
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The slowdown in Canada's economy hasn't yet met the bar for a technical recession amid modest real GDP growth in the fourth quarter of the year, Statistics Canada says.

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[โ€“] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

No surprise here. Frankly getting sick of decades of media conflating GDP with the wellbeing of citizens as opposed to the largest, most powerful financial interests. Yes there's a correlation there, but we would be using far more accurate and direct metrics if the status of citizens was the actual goal.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago (2 children)

No urgency

Meanwhile people are facing financial struggles with stupid high food prices and out of budget mortgage renewals.

Let them eat cake....

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

High interest rates tend to prevent further inflation, although it's a fine balance. In other words, high food prices isn't quite the argument for lower rates that you seem to think it is.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

Higher interest rates are impacting Canadians in every corner of life. Food costs... mortgages... fuel... they all domino and collapse together. The lack of urgency is directly hurting the vulnerable portion of our society. There's no easy fix. Drop interest rates too fast and you risk pushing inflation back up... don't drop interest rates fast enough and you risk pushing a significant portion of the population into bankruptcy or homelessness (not just home owners... also renters who are forced to absorb that same interest rate hike in the form of higher rents). Within my circle of friends. several have been forced to close businesses because of the impact of the rapid increase in interest rates. It's not the base rate itself, so much as the speed with which it was increased which was faster than their businesses could absorb.

As for mortgage renewals themselves... the insanity of the Canadian system of the typical 5-year renewable mortgages is just plain vanilla stupid. It makes everyone incredibly susceptible to microeconomics instead of averaging out the risk on a macro scale like most other countries do.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago (2 children)

and lots of people losing their jobs, but hey sure, take your time bank of Canada, no rush

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Job losses is the stated goal of the BoC. Job losses dampen consumer spending, which slows down purchases, which (theoretically) stops prices increasing.

[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago (1 children)

It's too bad they can't pick which jobs are lost. Many people on the lower end of the income spectrum (who are more likely to be the ones losing their jobs) can't really cut spending because the vast majority of their income goes to housing, food, and other essentials.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

Totally agreed. It's a shit policy that punishes people with precarious jobs.

I have no idea what would be better, TBH. I suspect the working poor would get the short end of the stick, regardless of the solution.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

I'm honestly a bit surprised. I was betting initially that we'd keep increasing throughout 2024, so the mere fact that talks are revolving around "remaining high" instead of further increases is, to my pessimistic prediction, a good development.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

As Forest Gump always says, "recession is as recession does"

[โ€“] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I see we have moved the goal post to a "technical recession" now.

[โ€“] [email protected] 11 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Maybe I'll be able to live in a "technical home" soon.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

Maybe I'll technically won't live paycheck to paycheck.