Index of Business Confidence: Autumn 2017

After reaching its highest level in two years this summer, Canadian business leaders’ optimism about investment spending and financial conditions fell back somewhat in the fall. The Conference Board of Canada’s Index of Business Confidence fell by 4.9 points to 99.3 in the third quarter of 2017. The index had previously increased for three straight quarters, and this quarter’s decline essentially wiped out the growth seen in the last survey. That is not surprising, given that we forecast economic growth to slow in the coming months compared with the phenomenal growth seen earlier this year.