OTTAWA, Oct 30 (Reuters) – There are signs that Canada’s
soaring household debt and its heated housing market – two of
the biggest headaches for the country’s policymakers – are
decelerating, Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney said on
Tuesday

Speaking to legislators, Carney also maintained his stance
as the most hawkish central banker in the Group of Seven rich
countries, saying the bank is more inclined to raise interest
rates than to lower them, although not any time soon.

OTTAWA, Oct 29 (Reuters) – Lower commodity prices are
reducing the Canadian government’s revenues, Ottawa said on
Monday but forecast it will still be able to eliminate its
budget deficit in the medium term.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said he expects economic
growth of at least 2 percent through 2017, which was the
consensus of private sector economists surveyed by his office
this month. That leaves the Conservative government’s overall
economic outlook through 2017 unchanged from the forecast in its
March budget despite a drop in its growth outlook for 2013.

OTTAWA, Oct 24 (Reuters) – Canadian interest rate hikes have
become “less imminent” as the economy slows, Bank of Canada
Governor Mark Carney said on Wednesday in unusually explicit
comments likely aimed at clearing up confusion over the central
bank’s recent statements.

The bank has been signaling since April that it will
eventually raise its overnight rate from the current 1.0
percent, making it the only central bank among major
industrialized economies to lean toward a rate hike.

OTTAWA, Oct 24 (Reuters) – The Bank of Canada halved its
forecast for third-quarter economic growth in Canada to 1.0
percent, annualized, on Wednesday and said the degree of slack
in the economy has widened, suggesting rate hikes could come
later than thought.

In its quarterly Monetary Policy Report, the bank also said
indebted households in Canada – a top concern of policymakers -
may be more vulnerable than it had thought.

OTTAWA, Oct 23 (Reuters) – The Bank of Canada surprised
markets on Tuesday by largely keeping a bias toward higher
interest rates and issuing a fairly upbeat outlook on growth,
adding for the first time that soaring household debt could
justify eventual rate increases.

The central bank, which has held its key rate at 1.0 percent
for two years, continued to use the hawkish language that has
made it an outlier among the central banks of major economies.
It softened its tone only slightly by making the timetable for
rate hikes less definite.

OTTAWA, Oct 19 (Reuters) – Canada’s annual inflation rate
remained tame in September at 1.2 percent, unchanged from August
and leaving little justification for the Bank of Canada to
maintain its hawkish bias when it sets interest rates next
Tuesday.

Core inflation, which excludes gasoline and other items to
reveal underlying price pressures, also came in below forecasts
at 1.3 percent, down from 1.6 percent in August, according to a
Statistics Canada report on Friday.

OTTAWA, Oct 18 (Reuters) – Canada may have to downgrade its
economic and fiscal forecasts to take into account continuing
economic challenges in Europe and the United States, Finance
Minister Jim Flaherty said on Thursday.

In the government’s fall fiscal update due in coming weeks,
Flaherty will update projections for the federal budget deficit
based on the average of private sector forecasts.

OTTAWA, Oct 16 (Reuters) – Canadian factory sales bounced
back in August after a two-month slump and foreign investors
continued to favor the country’s capital markets that month,
according to data on Tuesday that contrasted with gloomy reports
on Monday.

The unexpected 1.5 percent jump in manufacturing sales in
August from July brought sales to the highest level since March
and suggested the economy picked up speed that month.

OTTAWA/WINNIPEG, MANITOBA, Oct 11 (Reuters) – Canada’s food
inspection agency will allow the XL Foods plant in Alberta,
which produced the tainted beef that triggered one of the
biggest meat recalls in Canadian history, to resume limited meat
processing only on Thursday.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) said no meat will
be allowed to leave the plant for now and that it will be adding
extra inspectors to the plant to closely monitor the company’s
plan to improve food safety.

OTTAWA, Oct 10 (Reuters) – Canada should allow China’s
state-owned CNOOC Ltd to buy Canadian oil company
Nexen Inc, a former central bank chief said on
Wednesday, brushing aside arguments that oil is a “strategic”
resource off-limits to foreigners.

David Dodge, who was Bank of Canada Governor from 2001 to
2008, listed some factors to consider when reviewing the $15.1
billion bid, including the country’s need for foreign financing
and the hefty premium CNOOC is willing to pay for the asset.