5 April 2018

There will be certain data releases before April 18, which could affect the Bank of Canada’s decision.

On Thursday, Statistics Canada will release the merchandise trade results for February, and policy makers will search for the signs of growing exports, which have been quite sluggish even with the advantage from strong U.S. economy and weaker Canadian dollar.

Then, on Friday, job numbers for March will be provided. Today, economists expect one more month of a normal increase (about 20,000 jobs), following high activity of 2017, when the average monthly growth was as high as 35,600.

And the last main data before the rate meeting is the BoC’s poll of business executives, which has a significant impact on the final decision. The report will provide a lot of information, including the companies’ performance in relation to their inflationary expectations. However, the main issue is whether the uncertainty about NAFTA affects business spending.