Statistics Canada Reference Information

As a starting point I’ve linked the StatCan release schedule which lists key indicators http://www.statcan.gc.ca/release-diffusion/2016-eng.pdf and our site for economic indicators http://www.statcan.gc.ca/dai-quo/economic_indicators-indicateurs_economiques-eng.htm. You’ll note there are several indicators that are not on the original list we discussed last week.

Additional references:

Housing starts in Canada are compiled by Canada Mortgage and Housing Commission, and are disseminated on StatCan's site (http://www23.statcan.gc.ca/imdb/p2SV.pl?Function=getSurvey&db=imdb&adm=8&dis=2&SDDS=7505&lang=en)

For more details, the contact for the CMHC data is listed on the linked page

There are several construction PPIs in Canada, including both residential construction (new housing and apartment building) and non-residential building, as well as electric utility:
- In this series
  - Latest news release
  - Definitions
Handbook on Securities Statistics: http://www.imf.org/external/np/sta/wgsd/pdf/hss.pdf
Financial Soundness Indicators Compilation Guide: https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fsi/guide/2006/pdf/fsiFT.pdf
The Financial Crisis and Information Gaps: http://www.imf.org/external/np/g20/pdf/102909.pdf
Lists of leading and lagging indicators from various sites:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_indicator#Leading_indicators
http://www.moneycrashers.com/leading-lagging-economic-indicators/

Definitions:

CPI: The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is an indicator of changes in consumer prices experienced by Canadians. It is obtained by comparing, over time, the cost of a fixed basket of goods and services purchased by consumers. Since the basket contains goods and services of unchanging or equivalent quantity and quality, the index reflects only pure price change.

GDP: The total unduplicated value of the goods and services produced in the economic territory of a country or region during a given period. A valuation expressed in terms of the prices actually paid by the purchaser after all applicable taxes and subsidies.

There are several ways to calculate and, therefore, definitions for GDP. These can all be found here: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/eng/nea/gloss/gloss_g#Grossdomesticproduct

Unemployment rate: Number of unemployed persons expressed as a percentage of the labour force. The unemployment rate for a particular group (for example, age, sex, marital status) is the number of unemployed in that group expressed as a percentage of the labour force for that group.

Labour force: Civilian non-institutional population 15 years of age and over who, during the survey reference week, were employed or unemployed.

Employment rate (employment/population ratio): Number of employed persons expressed as a percentage of the population 15 years of age and over. The employment rate for a particular group (age, sex, marital status, province, etc.) is the number employed in that group expressed as a percentage of the population for that group.

In terms of spreads, from a data tabulation perspective in general this can take many forms and should likely follow the broad way “reference rate” is being treated. For e.g. one can consider risk or maturity, or not, it really depends on the use. We use market rates as our rates for calculating our reference rate in the New Lending Services Price Index by aggregate the market rates (weighting by funds advanced), to form one reference rate, then use this against the effective rates (not posted rates) in the calculation of spreads which are one component of the index. The details are summarized in our methodology document.

Volatility is relative and can change over time, so this might be hard to nail down but I’d assume some bounds might work. For e.g. inflationary targets.