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Businesses Brace for More Uncertainty: Key Findings from Business Insights Quarterly (Q2 2025)

As 2025 progresses, Canadian businesses — especially goods exporters — face mounting headwinds.
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Economic Commentary

Aug 22, 2025

Retail Sales June 2025: Broad-based rebound as core sales strengthen

Quarterly momentum improved: Q2 retail sales rose 0.4% in nominal terms and 0.7% in volume—an improvement on Q1’s softer profile—signaling a firmer goods-consumption lift to Q2 GDP, though the July advance estimate points to a muted start to Q3.
Economic Commentary

Aug 19, 2025

July 2025 CPI: Inflation cools off in the summer heat.

Canada’s inflation decelerated from 1.9% in June to 1.7% in July, on lower gasoline prices. Overall, recent price acceleration took a pause and there are some encouraging signs of price stability in light of the trade war.
Economic Commentary

Aug 08, 2025

Labour Force Survey July 2025: Employment declines could be a sign of a weakening economy

July saw significant job losses (-41k, -0.2%), marking the sharpest month-over-month decline since January 2025. Both the employment and participation rates dropped by 0.2 percentage points each. With reduced labour demand this summer, the youth were hit hardest by these losses.
Economic Commentary

Aug 05, 2025

Merchandise Trade June 2025: Trade deficit widens as imports outpaced modest export gains

In June, Canada’s merchandise exports rose 0.9% to $61.7 billion—driven by rebounds in energy (+3.8%) and agri-food (+6.7%) despite a pullback in unwrought gold, while imports climbed 1.4% to $67.6 billion on a one-off $2 billion machinery module. The goods deficit widened to $5.9 billion.
Economic Commentary

Jul 31, 2025

May 2025 GDP: The economy is still swimming.

Real gross domestic product dropped 0.1% in May, but the worse from the trade war might be behind us.

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