With fiscal spending booming and households flush with cash, investors are betting that the Bank of Canada's next tightening cycle, expected to begin in 2022, will result in interest rates climbing above the previous peak for the first time in decades, Reuters reported. In four major tightening cycles since the early 1990s, the Bank of Canada's key interest rate has peaked at a level that was lower than the preceding endpoint.
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Canada
Canada’s banking regulator raised a key capital requirement for large domestic banks, a signal that it considers the economic risks of the Covid-19 pandemic to have largely subsided, Bloomberg News reported. The country’s bank superintendent said Thursday it will raise the domestic stability buffer to 2.5% from 1%, beginning in October. The regulator lowered the buffer in March 2020, giving banks more room to absorb losses while still lending through the crisis.
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The U.S. Transportation Department said Tuesday it is seeking to fine Air Canada about $25.5 million for what it termed extreme delays in giving refunds to thousands of passengers whose flights across the U.S.-Canada border were canceled or rescheduled, the Associated Press reported. The department said that since March 2020 it has received complaints from more than 6,000 consumers who claimed Air Canada canceled or changed their flights and then took five to 13 months to provide a refund. Air Canada vowed to challenge the proposed fine.
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Tourism businesses pushed Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to relax stringent Canadian border rules in time to salvage the summer travel season, calling for a nationwide plan to reopen the country as the Covid-19 pandemic eases, Bloomberg News reported. The Tourism Industry Association of Canada, the National Airlines Council of Canada and other business groups lambasted the government’s lack of clarity over future travel rules, even as vaccination rates climb rapidly.
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Centerra Gold Inc. could part ways with Kyrgyzstan’s government over its seized flagship mine in the Central Asian nation, but the company’s top executive would like to discuss it first, Bloomberg News reported. Relations between Centerra and the Kyrgyz Republic have soured so much since the government took control of Kumtor gold mine that it would be difficult to go back to the way things were, said Chief Executive Officer Scott Perry.
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The Bank of Canada said on Thursday that inflation could remain higher than projected if supply imbalances and pressures on capacity persist, which might lead it to reduce stimulus more quickly than currently expected, Reuters reported. When asked during a news conference if above-target inflation could be a sign there is less slack in the economy than the central bank is projecting, Deputy Governor Tim Lane said it was a “certainly a possibility.” Inflation hit 3.4% in April, its fastest pace in a decade, mostly due to base-year effects and high commodity prices.
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A surge in mortgage borrowing is pushing consumer debt loads higher in Canada despite falling credit card use, as households plow more money into their homes while spending less on everything else, Bloomberg News reported. New mortgage borrowing rose 41% in the first quarter compared to the same period in 2020, when the pandemic began, according to a release Tuesday from consumer credit reporting firm Equifax Inc. The average limit on new mortgages -- the amount for which borrowers were approved -- jumped more than 20% to C$326,930 ($270,490).
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The president and vice-chancellor of Laurentian University said that he did reach out to both the provincial and federal governments and was transparent about the university's financial difficulties prior to seeking creditor protection on February 1st, CBC News reported. Robert Haché made that comment during an appearance at the Standing Committee on Official Languages on Thursday. Haché was questioned by both Sudbury MP Paul Lefebvre and Timmins-James Bay MP Charlie Angus.
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Sudbury MP Paul Lefebvre says more could have been done to help Laurentian University before it declared itself financially insolvent, but a lack of communication stymied the process, CBC News reported. Laurentian's restructuring under the insolvency process allows it to stay operating while dealing with its financial situation, but dozens of programs and staff have been cut. Lefebvre said that when he met with Laurentian officials in December 2020, there was no mention of cutting 100 professors and another 80 staff. The university announced it had entered insolvency proceedings on Feb. 1.
Canada’s Centerra Gold Inc. on Monday said that Kyrgyzstan units Kumtor Gold Co. and Kumtor Operating Co. have commenced bankruptcy proceedings in a U.S. court following nationalization of the miner’s Kumtor gold mine by the former Soviet republic, Reuters reported. Centerra said that the chapter 11 filing would have no financial or operational impact on it or any other areas of its business, including the Mount Milligan mine in Canada, the Oksut Mine in Turkey and its molybdenum business in North America. Kumtor, Kyrgyzstan’s largest foreign investment project, was operated by Centerra.
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