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This article delves into the microeconomics of note circulation, reviewing main factors affecting the demand for bank notes over the last 50 years, including new technology such as automated banking machines. It also discusses trends in the average value of notes in circulation and in the demand for notes of different denominations.

Canadian real GDP growth is projected to average around 2 ¼ per cent during 2014-2016.

In an environment of continued high uncertainty, the global recession has intensified and become more synchronous since the Bank’s January Monetary Policy Report Update, with weaker-than-expected activity in all major economies.

Errata: The source for Chart 1 (on page 3) is Global Insight, not the Bank of Canada. As well, in chart 15 (on page18), the base year for the exchange rate index CERI excluding the U.S. dollar should read 1992=100, not 1997=100.

In this article, we describe the various types of banking services (payments, settlement and safekeeping) that the Bank of Canada provides to different types of clients (the Government of Canada, financial market infrastructures, financial institutions, foreign central banks and the Canada Deposit Insurance Corporation). We also explain the reasons the Bank provides these services and how this role supports its core mandates, in particular financial stability. Finally, we explore the factors driving the growth and evolution in the provision of these banking services.

The Bank projects that the economy will grow by 2.1 per cent in 2012, 2.3 per cent in 2013 and 2.5 per cent in 2014. The economy is expected to reach full capacity in the second half of 2013.

The Canadian economy continues to grow at a solid pace, consistent with the Bank’s outlook in the January Monetary Policy Report Update.

The global economic recovery is proceeding but is not yet self-sustaining. Greater emphasis on balance sheet repair by households, banks, and governments in a number of advanced economies is expected to temper the pace of global growth relative to the Bank’s outlook in April.

As the economy reopens after the third wave of COVID-19, growth should rebound strongly. The Bank is forecasting growth of about 6 percent this year, slowing to about 4 ½ percent in 2022 and 3 ¼ percent in 2023.

Real GDP in Canada is expected to grow by 1.9 per cent in 2015 and 2.5 per cent in 2016 and by 2.0 per cent in 2017.

For over three decades, measured productivity growth in the commercial service sector has consistently lagged behind that of the goods-producing sector. At the same time, the service sector has greatly expanded its share of output and employment. Some commentators have suggested that this trend will reduce growth in total economy-wide productivity. In this article, the author reviews recent trends in productivity growth in services and the main factors affecting it. She concludes that services will likely contribute to increases in future productivity growth. There is a great diversity of experience within the service sector. While productivity is falling in some industries, factors such as technological change, deregulation, and increased competition have helped to increase it in others. Moreover, much of the growth in commercial service output is occurring in those industries with relatively high productivity growth. Difficulties in measuring output for some service activities may also be resulting in underestimation of output and productivity growth. To the extent that services are used as intermediate inputs in the production of goods, underestimating productivity growth in the service industry would cause an offsetting overestimation of productivity growth in goods-producing industries.