Canadians’ economic, fiscal expectations for 2019 remain steady

Forward expectations for the Canadian economy in 2019 continue to be in the neutral range, according to the Bloomberg Nanos Canadian Confidence tracking up to the week ending February 22.

The Confidence Index, which tallies financial health and economic expectations, registered at 54.43, the same level it was in 4 weeks prior. For comparison, the 12-month high currently stands at 58.32.

Regarding Canadian’s views on their personal finances and job security, the sub-indice stood at 59.16, a little bit higher than the 59.10 last seen 4 weeks ago. Canadians’ outlook for the economy and real estate prices slightly worsened from 49.76 to 49.70 last week.

Read more: Road to neutral range of rates still ‘highly uncertain’ – BoC

The Canadian economy has previously been expected by major banks to slow down to just 1.9% growth this year.

Recent numbers from the Bank of Canada showed that national residential mortgage growth has fallen to a 17-year low in December 2018, which posted a mere 3.1% annual increase to reach $1.55 trillion.

Observers have warned that this might be a sign of further slowdown this year, with major banks predicting that domestic mortgage growth will hover in the low to mid-single digits in 2019.

“The bread-and-butter of profitability for Canadian banks — is going to have a little less butter on the bread,” Edward Jones & Co. investment strategist Craig Fehr told Bloomberg. “That is, in many cases, the largest and most profitable and steady of the businesses that these banks operate.”