Bank of Canada Business Outlook: Activity Indicator

## What this measures

A summary of how Canadian firms see their business: past and expected sales, investment and hiring plans, from the Bank of Canada's quarterly Business Outlook Survey. It is an equal-weight average of standardized survey questions.

## Why it matters

It is the Bank of Canada's own read on business sentiment, from in-person interviews, and it feeds its rate decisions.

## How to read it

Zero is the historical average; positive is better than usual, negative worse. A reading of −1 is about as weak as the survey gets outside recessions.

## What it does not say

It is a survey of about 100 firms, with a lag of a few weeks after each quarter. The indicator is re-estimated as new surveys arrive, so past values can change slightly.

## Source

Bank of Canada, Valet API, series BOS_ACTIVITY_INDICATOR ("Activity indicator"). Palanor pulls it from the Bank's Valet service every weekday. Source: Bank of Canada. Content obtained from the Bank of Canada website; changes are noted where Palanor computes from it.