U.S. business economists are slightly more optimistic about economic growth than they were three months ago, and most foresee sales at their companies remaining solid. Those findings emerge from the latest survey by the National Association for Business Economics being released Monday. It found that 67 per cent of the business economists who responded to […]
There has been a lot of buzz about negative interest rates lately, as the idea that you would have to pay governments to borrow your money seems to turn the very foundation of finance on its head. But that is exactly what is happening right now for trillions of dollars in the world’s bond markets. […]
The Bank of Canada is keeping its key interest rate target on hold at 1.75 per cent and forecasting a slower-than-expected start for the Canadian economy in 2020. The central bank says in its latest forecast that the Canadian economy will grow by 1.6 per cent this year, down 0.1 of a percentage point from […]
Low interest rates and reduced trade tensions will likely buoy the global economy over the next two years and help nurture steady if modest growth. That’s the view of the International Monetary Fund, which foresees world economic growth accelerating from 2.9 per cent last year to 3.3 per cent in 2020 and 3.4 per cent […]
Sweden’s central bank has ended a five-year experiment of keeping its benchmark interest rate below zero, a policy that other countries have also adopted to try to improve economic growth. The country’s central bank, called the Riksbank, said Thursday it had decided to raise its benchmark interest rate to zero from -0.25 per cent, where […]
Japanification is a term describing the spread of low growth and low inflation around the world. Speaking at the Canadian Investment Review’s 2019 Defined Benefit Investment Forum in Toronto on Dec. 6, Charles Lannon, head of equities at Cidel Asset Management Inc., discussed whether Europe and the United States are destined for a similar fate […]
Two questions seem to occupy pundits and popular media these days. One is why interest rates are negative and what this means. The other is whether value investing is dead. Answering the first question provides useful insights in dealing with the second question. Negative interest rates on government bonds are observed in Europe and Japan, […]
The European Union’s executive branch has cut its growth forecasts for the 19-country eurozone for this year and next and warned that conditions could worsen in the face of an array of uncertainties. The European Commission said Thursday that the single currency bloc is expected to grow 1.1 per cent this year, down 0.1 percentage […]
While private equity’s original advantage was taking over a firm to revamp its governance and operations, private equity companies are now finding fewer underperforming firms to fix and the private equity model is changing, according to a new paper by Elisabeth de Fontenay, a professor of law at Duke University. The paper, which is set […]
The Bank of Canada kept its key interest rate on hold Wednesday, leaving the country as an exception compared to other advanced economies that have begun to respond to a weakening global economy. In its explanation, the central bank argued that inflation is on target and the domestic economy has held up well in many […]