North America

Global trade disruptions could make it harder for the Bank of Canada to consistently meet its 2% inflation target, and it will have to balance the risks of controlling higher prices with ensuring economic growth, Governor Tiff Macklem said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Inflation in Canada has been consistently falling this year, pushed down by interest rates that were at a two-decade high of 5% for more than a year before the central bank cut rates three times in a row from June.

Mexico’s annual inflation slowed roughly in line with expectations in August as a spike in food prices faded, giving the central bank more room to consider another interest rate cut this month, Bloomberg News reported. Consumer prices rose 4.99% from a year earlier, a touch below the 5.06% median estimate from analysts in a Bloomberg survey, the national statistics institute reported on Monday. Core inflation, which excludes volatile items such as fuel, eased to 4%, at the top of the bank’s target range of 3% plus or minus one percentage point.

Another tidal energy company that hoped to harness the powerful tides of the Bay of Fundy to generate electricity has come up short, CBC.ca reported. A spokesperson for the province's Department of Natural Resources and Renewables confirmed on Wednesday that Occurrent Power, formerly Big Moon Power, has filed for insolvency. "It is very unfortunate and is a concern for our tidal industry, clean innovation and greening the grid," Patricia Jreige said in a statement. Occurrent CEO Jay McKenna and CFO Mike Festa did not respond to messages seeking comment.

Canada’s economy added jobs for the first time in three months, but the unemployment rate surprisingly jumped to the highest level since the pandemic as the expanding pool of new workers are unable to find work, Bloomberg News reported. The country added 22,100 positions in August, and the jobless rate rose 0.2 percentage points to 6.6%. Outside the Covid-19 era, that’s the steepest rate since May 2017. The employment gains were driven by a net increase of 65,700 part-time positions. The number of full-time jobs fell 43,600.

Foreign business chambers have been warning for weeks that a proposed overhaul of Mexico’s judiciary, that would make judges stand for election, will hurt foreign businesses and endanger investment in Mexico, the Associated Press reported. And President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum has spent weeks trying to calm those fears, saying it’s simply a pro-democracy measure. But on Friday, outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador — who came up with the plan — confirmed that the sweeping changes are indeed aimed directly at foreign firms.

The Bank of Canada cut interest rates by a quarter percentage point for a third consecutive meeting, and reiterated that it’s “reasonable” to expect more easing to come if inflation keeps decelerating, Bloomberg News reported. Policymakers led by Governor Tiff Macklem lowered the benchmark overnight rate to 4.25% on Wednesday. Officials’ communications were little changed since their July meeting, and highlight the central bank’s increased focus on downside risks to inflation as they cut rates. They now see “little evidence” of broad-based price pressures.

U.S.-based Glas Trust is not part of a key panel overseeing the insolvency proceedings of Indian education-technology giant Byju's, and will need to substantiate the $1 billion claim of lenders it represents, according to documents and three sources, Reuters reported. Byju's was once a darling of global investors and valued at $22 billion in 2022, but is now facing insolvency due to its dispute with U.S. lenders. The company became popular by offering online training courses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Its insolvency officer, Pankaj Srivastava, told Glas in a Sept.

The Bank of Canada is likely to cut interest rates for a third consecutive meeting, as officials try to engineer a soft landing for the economy and inflation worries fade, Bloomberg News reported. Markets and economists widely expect policymakers led by Tiff Macklem to lower the benchmark overnight rate to 4.25% on Wednesday. The key question is whether officials will talk about the longer-range outlook, now that the US Federal Reserve is ready to move and forecasters are expecting a series of rate cuts stretching well into next year.