When the Bank of Canada hiked interest rates a full half point on Wednesday, at first blush, it seemed Canada’s P&C industry might benefit from the inflation-curbing measure by garnering greater returns on their investments. But it’s not that straightforward,…
OTTAWA – The governor of the Bank of Canada says higher interest rates are coming, but businesses also need to boost productivity to help keep rising prices in check over the long term. Tiff Macklem, speaking virtually at a Canadian…
A second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic is gripping parts of Canada and it will likely be well into next year until we come out of it, an expert predicts. And the longer things drag on, the worse it bodes…
Riding the wave of high interest rates years ago, some P&C insurers and reinsurers overlooked their escalating combined ratios, an industry exec recently observed during a webinar. And that’s coming back to bite the industry now that the global COVID-19…
The global pandemic isn’t necessarily causing a large number of problems around insurance issues in the real estate sector, but it’s clogging up the pathway to making things better. “The way we’re thinking about real estate and insurance is that,…
The impact of low interest rates on insurer profitability is something that warrants more discussion, suggests a senior executive with one of the world’s largest reinsurers. “This is something that significantly impacts the profitability of the insurance and reinsurance industry,…
It could be decades before insurers make decent returns on their investments. Why Canadians pay higher premiums when interest rates are low…
If P&C insurers are looking to use their investment returns to offset inadequate pricing strategies, Swiss Re has a chilling prediction for them – low interest rates could be with us for another 20 years or longer. Jerome Jean Haegeli,…
OTTAWA – The Bank of Canada left its trend-setting interest rate unchanged at 1.75 per cent Wednesday as the sharp decline in oil prices temporarily dims its economic outlook for the coming months. Before long, however, the central bank expects…
OTTAWA – Cooling inflation has given the Bank of Canada another reason to keep interest rates on ice next month. The annual pace of inflation slowed in November to 1.7 per cent as upward pressure from higher gasoline prices eased…
OTTAWA – The pace of economic growth in Canada slowed in the third quarter as business investment spending fell and the growth in household spending slowed, raising questions about the future pace of interest rate hikes by the Bank of…
OTTAWA – The Bank of Canada kept its key interest rate target on hold Wednesday, but noted the Canadian economy was a little stronger than expected in the first quarter, raising expectations that rate hikes are coming later this year…