Originally Posted by jimf (Post 8581147)

It's sentiment on the US dollar and Euro that drives the markets. GBP and $CAN have trivial influence by comparison.

As US$ has gone down commodities priced in US$ have gone up so suppliers like Canada have gone up. As the US$ is now going up and commodities going down the $CAN is going down.

As the sovereign debt issue in the Eurozone is looking worse each day traders are selling Euros and buying $US. High debt in the Eurozone means no growth and no spending on imports. UK does most exporting to the Eurozone these days - if they have less money for imports the UK will export less so negative sentiment for the GBP also.

Looks like Cameron can exercise a veto on this.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/news...eaty-plan.html

And there's this about Great Depression II. Japan's credit is to be downgraded according to rumours.
http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/cit...592c21529.html

Originally Posted by helcat12 (Post 8591931)

SOOOOOOOO.........
Can I afford that house in Vancouver in a years time when my PR comes through or not?:confused:
Or I might change my mind and rent so I can afford to spend $300 a week on beer:eek:

Originally Posted by helcat12 (Post 8591931)

SOOOOOOOO.........
Can I afford that house in Vancouver in a years time when my PR comes through or not?:confused:
Or I might change my mind and rent so I can afford to spend $300 a week on beer:eek:

Originally Posted by JamesM (Post 8591970)

I would expect the property bubble in Canada will have more to do with whether you can afford a property than the exchange rate.

Originally Posted by Alan2005 (Post 8591964)

Bank of canada are predicting a 10% or so decline over the next couple of years. I suspect this is code for 'we won't be putting interest rates up that much'.

Originally Posted by jimf (Post 8593937)

Is that 10% average decline in house prices across Canada? If they are admitting to that it'll probably be worse.

Does the Bank of Canada set interest rates to meet an inflation target as in the UK or is there some other mechanism? I though the suggestion was Canadian interest rates would be heading up during the summer?

Originally Posted by jimf (Post 8593937)

Does the Bank of Canada set interest rates to meet an inflation target as in the UK

Originally Posted by JonboyE (Post 8593956)

Yes. Monetary policy is to keep CPI in the 1% to 3% range and target 2%.

Originally Posted by Alan2005 (Post 8593990)

I'll just fix that for you.

Originally Posted by Mike Gas (Post 8594001)

That’s a lot of the trouble most of these official figures the governments pump out may as well be made up numbers, as they will manipulate them to tell any story they wish.

Originally Posted by Alan2005 (Post 8594018)

I have no doubts that CPI measures what it measures accurately. Whether or not the basket of goods reflects what typical Canadians buy is however debatable. I'd also add that the inclusion of mortgage interest in the calculation of CPI is wrong - I can see the arguments for it but I don't agree with them.

Originally Posted by jimf (Post 8594062)

Including mortgage interest means as the interest rate rises that element of measured inflation would actually rise, the reverse of what is intended. Is that why you don't agree with including it?

I think the UK measure used to exclude mortgage payments but didnt they change to include it?

Originally Posted by Alan2005 (Post 8594074)

Yes, it's positive feed back which seems almost designed to cause credit/asset bubbles.