DEVELOPING Latest updates on the major wildfires burning in Canada
The 2024 wildfire season has begun, and it's shaping up to follow last year's unprecedented destruction in kind, with thousands of square kilometres already consumed.
World leaders of the Group of 20 this week concluded a two-day summit in Indonesia at a time when nearly all member nations are battling sky-high inflation rates.
While it stayed steady in Canada in October compared to the previous month, inflation remains stubbornly high across many G20 nations and is yet to fall to pre-pandemic levels. Through a declaration, the G20 economies agreed to pace interest rates to avoid any “cross-country spillovers.”
So far, Argentina tops G20 economies with a staggering inflation rate of 88 per cent in October, surpassing Turkiye’s at 85.5 per cent.
Amongst the advanced G20 economies, the U.K. faces the second-highest inflation of 11.1 per cent, after Italy recorded 12.8 per cent in October 2022.
Canada’s current inflation rate was 6.9 per cent in October, matching the 6.9 per cent recorded in September.
So far, the high inflation rates have led to food insecurity, and coupled with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and persistent pandemic effects, it has become “increasingly evident” that there is a slowdown in global economic growth, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) experts tracking the progress of the Group of Twenty (G20) economies.
“Despite growing evidence of a global slowdown, policymakers should continue to prioritize containing inflation, which is contributing to a cost-of-living crisis,” Tryggvi Gudmundsson, an economist in IMF’s Research Department, wrote in an IMF blog. The most vulnerable groups and low-income countries, he said, are likely to be hit the hardest, and recent G20 indicators confirm that “the outlook is gloomier.”
IMF's survey based measures
“We are seeing a reversal of all we had been fighting for: bringing poverty down, bringing hunger down,” said Kristalina Georgieva, the IMF’s managing director at the G20 Leaders’ Summit on Nov. 15. “Now we have 345 million people that are suffering from a food crisis.” In a separate report by The World Bank released on Monday, food insecurity was a huge concern, with domestic food price inflation remaining high in almost all low-and middle-income countries and high-income countries.
Composed of some of the world’s leading and largest economies including the European Union (EU), the G20 accounts for 80 per cent of global economic output and two-thirds of the world population. Leading G7 economies such as the U.S., U.K., Germany, and Canada are all a part of the G20. But unlike the G7, the Group of 20 also includes some of the largest emerging markets like India, China, and Brazil.
The impact of the war in Ukraine dominated the talks at the G20 summit, the first since Russia invaded Ukraine this year.
“Most members strongly condemned the war in Ukraine and stressed it is causing immense human suffering and exacerbating existing fragilities in the global economy - constraining growth, increasing inflation, disrupting supply chains, heightening energy and food insecurity, and elevating financial stability risks," the leaders' declaration said.
Canada had been among the most forceful in urging G20 nations to condemn Russia’s war on Ukraine which has contributed to worsening inflation. The IMF’s G20 report pointed out that the ongoing war has not only led to a humanitarian crisis but has also damaged the labour market recoveries in several emerging markets of Indonesia and South Africa. Associated sanctions have further contributed to supply disruptions, rising food insecurity, and energy concerns, especially across Europe.
With stubborn inflation rates, IMF’s World Economic Outlook recently downgraded its growth outlook for all the G20 nations, except for China.
Canada’s economy is forecasted to grow 3.3 per cent this year, only to slow to 1.5 per cent in 2023. According to the Bank of Canada’s monetary policy report, GDP growth is projected to slow to between 0 per cent and 0.5 per cent through the end of 2022 and the first half of 2023.
Overall growth has been downgraded for advanced G20 nations, from 2.1 per cent this year to 0.9 per cent in 2023. In comparison, data showed that emerging G20 economies were expected to display relatively more resilience with growth projected to be 3.8 per cent in 2023 from 3.7 per cent in 2022.
Some of the largest tightening moves in decades were witnessed in the advanced G20 economies of Canada, the U.K., and the U.S.
The Bank of Canada raised its interest rate to 3.75 per cent from 3.25 per cent, while predicting that the country could see a potential recession in the first half of 2023.
The U.S. Federal Reserve has been most aggressive with its interest rates, lifting interest rates to a level not seen since before the Global Financial Crisis. In January 2022, its policy rate ranged between zero and 0.25 per cent, but the most recent interest rate in November ranges between 3.75 and 4 per cent. In July, the European Central Bank (ECB) started hiking rates for the first time since 2011 and has so far raised its key interest rates by a total of 200 basis points.
IMF's survey based measuresWith the notable exceptions of China and Japan, central banks across all G20 economies aggressively increased interest rates. Some emerging market economies of Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico tightened their monetary policies earlier than G20 advanced economies.
“A world divided would lose at least 1.5 percent of GDP annually,” said Georgieva. “And the cost would be much higher—2 times higher or more-—for open economies, those that depend on international cooperation.”
The report warned that global fragmentation pressures could likely destroy any gains from decades of increasing globalization but collective efforts by G20 could help meet the challenges the world faces.
“The richest economies must stay committed to continued support for the poorest ones,” the report said.
The 2024 wildfire season has begun, and it's shaping up to follow last year's unprecedented destruction in kind, with thousands of square kilometres already consumed.
Veteran TSN broadcaster Darren 'Dutch' Dutchyshen, one of Canada’s best-known sports journalists, has died. He was 57. His family says 'he passed as he was surrounded by his closest loved ones.'
A ‘lifetime of abuse’ led Dallas Ly to snap and repeatedly stab his mother inside their Leslieville apartment in 2022 but he never intended to kill her, his defence lawyers argued during at his murder trial in Toronto on Thursday.
A burgeoning track star says his dream of going to the Olympics is being derailed by a deportation order after Immigration officials rejected his family’s claim for asylum
A Montreal father who kidnapped his daughter who has autism and lied to police when they asked where she was should serve three years in prison, a Crown prosecutor said.
Loblaw Cos. Ltd. said Thursday it's ready to sign on to the grocery code of conduct, paving the way for an agreement that's been years in the making.
A medical examiner says a Massachusetts teen who participated in a spicy tortilla chip challenge died from ingesting a substance 'with a high capsaicin concentration.'
To give Canadians a break on their summer road trips, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to suspend all gas and diesel taxes from Victoria Day to Labour Day.
Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly is imposing sanctions on Israelis she accuses of 'extremist settler violence' in the West Bank, three months after pledging to do so.
A Starbucks fan — whose name is Winter — is visiting Canada on a purposeful journey that began with a random idea at one of the coffee chain's stores in Texas.
Members of Piapot First Nation, students from the University of Winnipeg and various other professionals are learning new techniques that will hopefully be used for ground searches of potential unmarked grave sites in the future.
ALS patient Mathew Brown said he’s hopeful for future ALS patients after news this week of research at Western University of a potential cure for ALS.
When Adam Kirschner wrote 'Slap Shot,' he never imagined the song would be embraced by his favourite team.
A team is ready to help an entangled North Atlantic right whale in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
A $200 reward is being offered by a North Vancouver family for the safe return of their beloved chicken, Snowflake.
Two daughters and a mother were reunited online 40 years later thanks to a DNA kit and a Zoom connection despite living on three separate continents and speaking different languages.
Mother's Day can be a difficult occasion for those who have lost or are estranged from their mom.
YES Theatre Young Company opened its acclaimed kids’ show, One Small Step, at Sudbury Theatre Centre on Saturday.