Newsline Canada
 

Economists: Canadian economy will be worse in 2009 By ROB GILLIES Associated Press 2009-01-08 Some of Canada's top economists say 2009 will be a worse year for the Canadian economy than last year. TD Bank chief economist Don Drummond said at a gathering at the Economic Club of Canada on Wednesday that the challenges faced by the U.S. will start to be felt more keenly in Canada during the first three months of this year. High commodity prices propped up the resource-rich Canadian economy in the first half of last year, but the broad sell-off has slowed Canada's economy in recent months. Drummond says the first half of 2009 looks pretty terrible for Canada, and Scotiabank economist Warren Jestin says layoffs are just starting in Canada. CIBC World Markets senior economist Avery Shenfeld says company earnings for companies listed on Canada's main stock exchange will drop 15 percent to 20 percent.

Job losses will continue: Finance Minister Jim Flaherty http://www.canada.com/topics/news/story.html?id=1159933 Eric Beauchesne, Canwest News Service January 09, 2009 OTTAWA - The Canadian economy has lost more than 100,000 full-time jobs over the past two months and the losses will continue this year, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty warned Friday, indicating that his Jan. 27 budget will cushion the economy's fall into recession with measures to free up credit, including for car loans, to put unemployed Canadians to work on infrastructure programs or into job training programs, and tax cuts to put more spending money into the pockets of consumers. "We are in for a very difficult year," Flaherty said, adding the job losses will be "substantial." His comments, including a warning that the recession and the measures to stimulate a recovery will also result in a "substantial deficit," came followed news that Canada lost a further 71,000 full time jobs last month, which was only partially offset by a gain of 32,000 part-time positions, resulting in a jump in the jobless rate here to a three-year high of 6.6 per cent from 6.3 per cent in November.

Gloom spreads: Canadian firms brace for slower sales, cutting work force http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/090112/national/boc_economy By Julian Beltrame, The Canadian Press OTTAWA - Canada's companies are bracing themselves for a very hard year of slower sales growth, shrinking employment and tight borrowing conditions that will further undermine the economy, two new surveys from the Bank of Canada indicate. The central bank's quarterly survey of 100 companies cross the country, released Monday, finds the mood among Canada's business community decidedly dark - the most pessimistic in more than a decade - in the face of the global financial crisis and economic slowdown. And a separate survey of senior loan officers found widespread tightening of lending conditions that will restrict businesses' ability to finance operations, expand and create new jobs. Companies say they expect sales growth to slow, prices of products they produce to increase at a slower pace and that their workforce will shrink this year. In 2008, deep losses in the automotive and forestry sectors, spread to the energy, mining and metals industries as the economy weakened further and Canada sank into recession. Given the bleak global economic outlook, the survey results are not surprising. But what is surprising is how widely pessimism has spread in Canada's business community in the last three months. "Business sentiment has deteriorated markedly since the autumn survey, as the effects of the international finance crisis and the weak global economy intensified and spread to domestic demand," the Bank of Canada reported. "Almost all indicators are at their lowest level since the survey began in 1997." Many economists expect the economy to shed up to 200,000 jobs this year before a turnaround expected in 2010. Two new Statistics Canada reports Monday underscored the trend. The federal agency said its new housing price index edged up a mere 0.7 per cent in November from a year earlier, about half the pace recorded in October and the smallest increase since August 1999.

US job losses hit record in 2008 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7820164.stm More US workers lost jobs last year than in any year since World War II, with employers axing 2.6 million posts and 524,000 in December alone. The US jobless rate rose to 7.2% in December, the highest in 16 years. The official data came as plane-maker Boeing said it would cut 4,500 jobs this year at its commercial airline arm due to the global economic slowdown. US President-elect Barack Obama said that the economic situation is dire and action is urgently needed. "Clearly the situation is dire. It is deteriorating and it demands urgent and immediate action," he told a news conference. He added that he was making good progress on in talks with Congress on a new stimulus package - estimated to cost $800bn (£526bn). Shares fell on the news of the job losses, with the main Dow Jones index ending Friday trading down 143 points or 1.6% to 8,599. Oil prices slipped more than $1 a barrel to below $41 a barrel. The rise in unemployment raised fears of slackening demand for oil. The annual jobless total was higher than expected, partly because jobless figures in November and October were revised upwards.November's job losses were revised to 584,000 from 533,000 while October's losses were revised to 423,000 from 320,000. More than half of the job losses last year were in the last four months of the year. Analysts had forecast that 550,000 jobs would go in December. Most December job losses were in the service sector, which shed 273,000 jobs. Manufacturing jobs fell by 149,000 in December, while employment in construction fell by 101,000, with retailers cutting staff by 67,000. Some of those lucky enough not to lose their jobs, had their hours reduced. The number of aggregate hours worked in December fell 0.2 hours to 33.3 hours, the lowest level since records began in 1964. "The drop in average hours worked in this employment report suggests that the first quarter is going to be very, very weak," said Cary Leahey, economist at Decision Economics. The number of people who worked part time - because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to get full-time work - increased by 3.4 million to 8 million in the last 12 months.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown backs Prince Harry after racist remark http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/090112/world/britain_royals_racism_lead LONDON (AFP) - Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Monday the public would give Prince Harry the "benefit of the doubt" over his home movie showing him calling army colleagues "Paki" and "raghead." Brown said the 24-year-old royal, who is third in line to the throne, knew his language was unacceptable and his apology was sincere. But the father of the Pakistani soldier who Harry called "our little Paki friend" said he could not accept the prince's apology, insisting that he should say sorry to the Islamabad government. The News of the World newspaper on Sunday published the video clips made by Harry in 2006 while he was an army officer cadet. The prince's office said Harry was extremely sorry for any offence caused. "The sincerity of his apology cannot be doubted," Brown told GMTV television. "It was a mistake, he has made the admission of that and, once he has made his apology, I think the British people are good enough to give someone who has actually been a role model for young people and has done well fighting for our country, gone into very difficult situations with bravery, I think they will give him the benefit of the doubt. "I think Prince Harry knows that these comments are unacceptable. "I think it is a genuine apology. These comments have no part in our life." Touring the room with a video camera as his colleagues snooze, he spots a colleague whose family is of South Asian origin and says: "Anybody else around here?... Ah, our little Paki friend, Ahmed." "Paki" is a racist term for Pakistanis or other South Asians and is thought to have been directed at Ahmed Raza Khan, who served with Harry at the prestigious Sandhurst military academy. Harry's grandmother Queen Elizabeth II presented Khan with the Overseas Sword for being the best foreign cadet in April 2006. The prince's office insisted he had used the term without malice. Khan's father Muhammad Yaqoob Khan Abbasi said he was "very, very hurt" by the "disgraceful insult", telling the Daily Mail newspaper from Pakistan: "That word he used is a hate word and should never be used against any Pakistani. "Prince Harry should apologise to the Pakistani army and to the Pakistani government for this. I cannot accept his apology unless they first accept his apology." News of the World said Harry made the "raghead" remark -- a racist term for Arabs -- while taking part in night manoeuvres in Cyprus.