Market update from RBC

One US dollar can now buy 1.2087 Canadian Dollars on the spot market…unbelievable.
Those who accepted my advice in Aug 2012 are sitting back and smiling I’m sure.

China has reported a GDP of 7.4% for fiscal 2014.
Although 3x greater than Canada’s GDP it is the lowest GDP China has reported in over 20 years.
So to put it in perspective, they are not in a recession based on our standards, but their growth has slowed down significantly and the effects of that slow down are being felt around the world…ie lower demand for our resources is just one example.

Finally the IMF (International Monetary Fund) has lowered Canada’s GDP growth targets for 2015 for second time, now down by .1% from 2.4% to 2.3%.
In actual terms it’s only 1/10 of 1%. However, in a $1.827 Trillion Canadian economy (2013 in USD source: Google) , 0.1% is $1,827,000,000 or $1.827 Billion dollars…ouch….that hurts just a tad, right.
No matter how you slice this, it means there is $1.827 Billion dollars “LESS” being spent on good and services.

Again, never good news to see a slowing economy but what you need to take away here is that we are far from being in a recessionary environment.
Experts are predicting by that the US won’t increase rates until April and Canada now won’t increase rates until 2016.

That’s all for now!

Mike Bensimhon l RBC Royal Bank
Mike Bensimhon, BSc, MBA, CFP, PFP l Financial Planner, Investment & Retirement Planning l Royal Mutual Funds, Inc l Tel. (604) 961-8525 l Fax (604) 665-6768