Canada

Canada’s economic growth came to a halt after a solid start to the year as tariff threats mounted, Bloomberg News reported. Advance data showed gross domestic product was unchanged in February, Statistics Canada said Friday. That followed a robust 0.4% expansion in January, the strongest monthly pace since April last year and beating the median estimate of economists. Assuming there’s also no growth in March, the industry-based numbers point to annualized 2.1% growth in the first quarter, versus the Bank of Canada’s forecast of 2% and the 1.6% expected by economists in a Bloomberg survey.

Liberal Party Leader Mark Carney promised a C$2 billion ($1.4 billion) “strategic response fund” to help Canadian auto manufacturing and strengthen a supply chain that’s under threat from US tariffs, Bloomberg News reported. Carney, who became prime minister less than two weeks ago, said a government led by him would try to build an “all-in-Canada” network for auto parts, working with industry to make more parts in the country and limit the number that have to cross the Canada-US border during production. But he gave few details on how that would work.

Canadians have long been the top international travelers to the U.S. Now, they are staying home, the Wall Street Journal reported. After President Trump said that he would impose tariffs on Canada, then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau encouraged Canadians to change their vacation plans to focus on exploring sites within the country. It worked. Canadian residents returned from 13% fewer trips by air to the U.S. in February than they did a year ago, according to preliminary data from Statistics Canada.

An Ontario court on Friday gave Hudson’s Bay, Canada’s oldest company, permission to start liquidating all but six of its stores on Monday, the Associated Press reported. The approval from Ontario Superior Court Judge Peter Osborne allows the retailer, which dates back to 1670, to begin selling off inventory at most of its 80 Hudson’s Bay stores, three Saks Fifth Avenue locations and 13 Saks Off 5th shops in Canada. “This is the art of the possible and we are where we are today. In my view, there is no other alternative,” Judge Osborne said.

Canadian consumers pared back their spending for a second straight month amid trade war uncertainty, only partially reversing a year-end boost in sales after a federal sales tax was paused, Bloomberg News reported. An advance estimate suggests receipts for retailers fell 0.4% in February, Statistics Canada said Friday. The declines follow a 2.6% spike in sales in December that coincided with the start of the break in sales taxes on some items. Still, the first back-to-back decreases since mid-2023 may point to mounting pressures on consumption from concerns about the US-Canada tariff war.

The U.S. mission told China and Canada it was ready to confer with its officials in Geneva after those two countries filed trade disputes in response to new tariffs, World Trade Organization documents showed on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Canada requested consultations - the first step in a WTO trade dispute - earlier this month in response to "unjustified tariffs" imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump earlier this month. China launched a dispute after Trump tariffs on Chinese goods in February.

Inflation in Canada grew at the fastest pace in eight months, further limiting the central bank’s ability to cut interest rates amid a trade war that will both slow economic growth and boost prices, Bloomberg News reported. The consumer price index rose at a 2.6% yearly pace last month, the highest rate since June and up from 1.9% in January, Statistics Canada said Tuesday. The index jumped 1.1% on a monthly basis in February, the fastest pace in nearly three years.

Hudson's Bay Company is nearly a billion dollars in debt, according to court filings that paint a dire portrait of the struggling Canadian department store chain's finances, CBC.ca reported. The documents were submitted as part of its creditor protection filing last week. The company owes a total of $950 million to nearly 2,000 secured and unsecured creditors, including well-known apparel and beauty brands like Adidas Canada, Estée Lauder, L'Oréal Canada, Levi Strauss Canada, Michael Kors Canada, Nike Canada and Ralph Lauren.

Francois-Phillipe Champagne will be named as Canada’s new finance minister when Mark Carney takes over as prime minister on Friday, Bloomberg News reported. Champagne served in several cabinet roles under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, including foreign affairs, trade, and most recently as industry minister, where he was responsible for foreign investment files, including the government’s use of subsidies to try to attract automakers to build new plants.

The United States' National Coffee Association asked the Trump administration to exempt the product from any tariffs, saying that the already adopted additional duties on Canada and Mexico could increase U.S. prices up to 50%, Reuters reported. In a letter seen by Reuters, NCA President and CEO Bill Murray told U.S.