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OPEC on Monday cut its forecast for 2022 global oil demand growth for a fifth time since April and also trimmed next year’s figure, citing mounting economic challenges including high inflation and rising interest rates. Oil demand in 2022 will increase by 2.55 million barrels per day (bpd), or 2.6 per cent, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said in a monthly report, down 100,000 bpd from the previous forecast. “The world economy has entered a period of significant uncertainty and rising challenges in the fourth quarter of 2022,” OPEC said in the report. “Downside risks include high inflation, monetary tightening by major central banks, high sovereign debt levels in many regions, tightening labour markets and persisting supply chain constraints.” This report is the last before OPEC and its allies, together known as OPEC+, meet on Dec. 4 to set policy. The group, which recently cut production targets, will remain cautious, Saudi Arabia’s energy minister was q...

In an upscale Seoul neighbourhood two years ago, a white Tesla Model X smashed into a parking lot wall. The fiery crash killed a prominent lawyer – a close friend of South Korea’s president. Prosecutors have charged the driver with involuntary manslaughter. He blames Tesla. Choi Woan-jong, who had eked out a living by driving drunk people home in their own cars, says the Model X sped out of control on its own and that the brakes failed in the December 2020 accident. The criminal trial about to begin in South Korea hangs on questions about the safety of Tesla cars, at a time when the EV maker faces a range of lawsuits and increased scrutiny by regulators. Choi, 61, is now unable to find work as an independent driver, or what is known in Korea as a “replacement driver.” He says he suffers flashbacks and depression ahead of a trial that pits his credibility against the world’s most valuable auto maker. “When I wake up, I feel abandoned, floating alone in the middle of the ocean,” said C...

A fast-moving conveyor moves packages to delivery trucks at an Amazon fulfillment centre in Robbinsville, N.J., on Nov. 29, 2021. MIKE SEGAR/Reuters Spending on Cyber Monday, the biggest U.S. online shopping day, may hit a record $11.6 billion, according to a report, as discounts on everything from pajamas to AirPods drive shoppers to buy even under the strain of inflation. The Adobe Analytics report is predicting Cyber Monday spending of $11.2 billion to $11.6 billion, an increase of up to 8.5% from a year earlier, as inflation-weary consumers have been putting off holiday shopping for weeks in the hopes of deep post-Thanksgiving markdowns. Adobe Analytics, which measures e-commerce by analyzing transactions at websites, has access to data covering purchases at 85% of the top 100 internet retailers in the United States. Cyber Monday sales fell 1.4% last year as retailers spread out promotional deals across weeks from as early as October to better manage inventories amid widespread p...

A new report by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. says government alone can’t solve the country’s housing challenges. The report by CMHC deputy chief economist Aled ab Iorwerth says the scale of the problem is so large that the private sector must be involved. The national housing agency says rent subsidies and more social housing are helpful, but more needs to be done. It says there must also be increased supply of housing aimed at the market. Home prices have eased this year as the real estate market has cooled, but they are coming off record levels earlier in the pandemic. The report says the imperative of increasing housing supply will be even greater as Canada seeks to attract more immigrants. https://www.tausiinsider.com/government-cant-solve-housing-issues-alone-private-sector-must-be-involved-cmhc-report-says/?feed_id=332358&_unique_id=645d53d77b13e

Ontario Auditor-General Bonnie Lysyk speaks during a news conference at Queen's Park in Toronto on Dec. 4, 2019. Aaron Vincent Elkaim/The Canadian Press Ontario’s Auditor-General says the province’s real estate regulator has been ineffective in policing the multibillion-dollar residential property industry. In a report released on Wednesday, Auditor-General Bonnie Lysyk found the Real Estate Council of Ontario (RECO) does not adequately ensure that the industry complies with the regulations and has failed to do enough to protect consumers. Topping the Auditor-General’s list of concerns was the fact that RECO does not fully inspect real estate brokerages on a timely basis. The Auditor-General found that 27 per cent of registered brokerages have never been fully inspected. Regulators face pressure to review discount brokerage rules as DIY investors turn to social-media posts for advice Ontario’s planned land changes redesignate thousands of hectares against the will of local counc...

A new report shows women, people of colour and immigrants in Canada’s tech sector saw employment and pay inequities persist – and in some cases, worsen – between 2001 and 2016. The research from the Brookfield Institute for Innovation + Entrepreneurship at Toronto Metropolitan University shows women were increasingly excluded from tech work throughout that period. A woman had a 6.29 per cent chance of being a tech worker in 2001, but by 2016, that had fallen to 4.91 per cent. Meanwhile, men had a 20 per cent chance of being a tech worker, which remained unchanged between 2001 and 2016. Over the same time span, researchers found men made an average of $3.49 more per hour than women and that identifying as a visible minority lowered one’s pay by an average $3.89 per hour. Researchers also observed no pay gap between immigrant and non-immigrant tech workers in 2001, but by 2016, a gap of roughly $5.70 per hour emerged. https://www.tausiinsider.com/canadas-tech-sector-saw-employment...

Canada’s unemployment rate is still holding near historical lows even as the Bank of Canada cranks up interest rates to slow the economy and stifle inflation. Statistics Canada says employment was little changed in November, with a modest gain of 10,000 jobs. In its latest labour force survey, the federal agency says Canada’s unemployment was 5.1 per cent last month, down from 5.2 per cent in October. “The main overriding feature of today’s report was that you were continuing to gain jobs in Canada,” TD’s director of economics James Orlando said Friday. “If you add up just the number of jobs gained in November and October, it’s pretty substantial.” In October, the economy added a whopping 108,000 jobs, taking forecasters by surprise with the strong jobs gain. Employment rose in several industries in November, including finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing, manufacturing and in information, culture and recreation, while it fell in construction as well as wholesale and r...

A report by DesRosiers Automotive Consultants says light vehicle sales in November rose 4.1 per cent compared with last year. The firm estimates 114,966 light vehicle were sold last month. The result was up from 110,448 in November 2021. However, DAC noted that sales totalled 143,315 in November 2019 before the pandemic struck. DAC managing partner Andrew King says sales for the year to date stand at 1.38 million units, making it likely that sales for 2022 will finish the year below 1.5 million. King says if that happens it will be first year the market has fallen below that threshold since 2009. https://www.tausiinsider.com/november-auto-sales-in-canada-up-from-year-ago-report-says/?feed_id=331194&_unique_id=645257c64c014

Sobey's Queensway store in Toronto on Apr. 3, 2020. Canada’s Food Price Report says the cost of groceries will increase by 5 to 7 per cent in 2023. J.P. MOCZULSKI/Tausi Insider Food costs in Canada will continue to rise over the next year, with the average family of four expected to pay an additional $1,000 for groceries in 2023, according to an annual report on prices. Canada’s Food Price Report says the cost of groceries will increase by 5 per cent to 7 per cent in 2023, compounding the financial burden of a year of record-high food inflation that saw prices climb 10.3 per cent between November, 2021, and September, 2022. By way of comparison, in its October Monetary Policy Report, the Bank of Canada said it expects the consumer price index to fall to about 3 per cent by late 2023. The average family of four, who paid more than $15,200 for food in 2022, will pay more than $16,200 next year for the same groceries, the report said. The main drivers of that increase are the contin...

Chinese hackers have stolen tens of millions of dollars worth of U.S. COVID relief benefits since 2020, the Secret Service said on Monday. The Secret Service declined to provide any additional details but confirmed a report by NBC News that said the Chinese hacking team that is reportedly responsible is known within the security research community as APT41 or Winnti. APT41 is a prolific cybercriminal group that had conducted a mix of government-backed cyber intrusions and financially motivated data breaches, according to experts. Several members of the hacking group were indicted in 2019 and 2020 by the U.S. Justice Department for spying on over 100 companies, including software development companies, telecommunications providers, social media firms, and video game developers. “Regrettably, the Chinese Communist Party has chosen a different path of making China safe for cybercriminals so long as they attack computers outside China and steal intellectual property helpful to China,” fo...

IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol speaks in Singapore, on Oct. 25. ISABEL KUA/Reuters Global renewable power capacity growth is set to double over the next five years, driven by energy security concerns in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Tuesday. In an annual report on the outlook for renewables, the IEA said capacity worldwide is expected to grow by 2,400 gigawatts (GW) – equal to the entire power capacity of China today – to 5,640 GW by 2027. The increase is 30 per cent higher than the amount of growth forecast a year ago. High gas and power prices from a global energy crisis this year have made renewable power technologies more attractive. Growth in renewables is also being driven by the United States, China and India implementing policies and market reforms to support renewables deployment more quickly than previously planned. “Renewables were already expanding quickly, but the global energy crisis has kicked them into an e...

The federal government’s spending on COVID-19 support programs forced the Bank of Canada to aggressively raise interest rates, Bank of Nova Scotia economists say in a new report. Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press Although the federal government’s spending on COVID-19 support programs has made only a small contribution to the run-up in inflation, it has forced the Bank of Canada to raise interest rates in a more aggressive fashion than would otherwise have been needed, Bank of Nova Scotia economists say in a new report. As Canada has grappled with the highest inflation rates in nearly four decades, there has been a great deal of debate about what is causing price growth, including the role that government spending has played. About half of the increase in core inflation beyond the Bank of Canada’s 2-per-cent target since the end of 2019 can be attributed to global factors, such as lofty U.S. inflation, changes in currency exchange rates and higher commodity prices, the Scotiabank rep...

Twitter Inc plans to change the pricing of its Twitter Blue subscription product to $11, from $7.99, if paid for through its iPhone app and to $7 if paid for on the website, the Information reported on Wednesday, citing a person briefed on the plans. The move was likely a pushback against Apple Inc’s AAPL-Q 30 per cent cut on any payments made by users via apps on the iOS operating system, the report said. The lower pricing on the website was also likely to drive more users to that platform as opposed to signing up on their iPhones, the report said. It did not mention whether pricing would change for the Android platform as well. Musk, who took ownership of Twitter in October, is planning to roll out the micro blogging site’s verified service with different coloured checks for individuals, companies and governments, after a botched initial launch led to a surge in users impersonating celebrities and brands on the platform. Twitter, Apple and Google, which owns the Android operating s...

Apple AAPL-Q supplier Foxconn’s founder-director Terry Gou had warned China that the government’s zero-COVID stance would threaten the position of the world’s second-largest economy in the global supply chain, the Wall Street Journal reported. The appeal, sent by Gou in a letter more than a month ago, played a major role in convincing China’s leadership to quickly reopen the economy and move away from its zero-tolerance COVID-19 policy, the report said on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. Gou’s office said in a statement that it “sternly denies” the facts in the report. Foxconn, which is the biggest assembler of iPhones, declined to comment, while China’s State Council Information Office could not be immediately reached for comment. The Taiwan-based company’s Zhengzhou plant, which saw a month-long unrest in November, has lifted its “closed-loop” management curbs on Thursday. The Zhengzhou plant had been grappling with strict COVID restrictions that fuelled discontent...

A new report says Canadian companies have made slow, incremental progress on gender diversity when it comes to corporate governance and are only now beginning to add a substantial number of directors from diverse backgrounds. Fred Lum/Tausi Insider A major new study of the state of corporate governance in Canada suggests boards should have at least 40 per cent of its members identify as women and 30 per cent from underrepresented racial groups, Indigenous people and disabled people. To help achieve that goal, companies should consider placing term limits of 12 years on their board members, the report says. The authors are the TMX Group Ltd. (the parent of the Toronto Stock Exchange) and the Institute of Corporate Directors (ICD), two of the most influential players in Canada’s corporate-governance world. As the country’s main stock exchange, the TSX has the power to set listing standards that companies must adhere to. The ICD is the primary group offering introductory and continuing ...

Emergency crews after a leak at the Keystone pipeline, in Washington County, Kan., on Dec. 9. DRONE BASE/Reuters U.S. government data shows spills from TC Energy Corp.’s TRP-T Keystone pipeline have increased in severity in recent years. The Calgary-based company has more than 250 people on the ground in Washington County, Kan., cleaning up the approximately 14,000 barrels of oil that leaked into a creek last week. The spill is the largest in the history of the 4,324-km Keystone pipeline. A report last year from the U.S. Government Accountability Office said pipelines are considered to be much safer than moving oil by truck or rail, and Keystone’s safety record since 2010 is similar to that of other crude pipelines. But the report also said Keystone’s safety record in the last five years is worse than the national average. In addition to last week’s spill, the pipeline suffered leaks in 2017 and 2019. TC Energy has not yet indicated the cause of last week’s spill. The Keystone pipeli...

OPEC on Tuesday stuck to its forecasts for global oil demand growth in 2022 and 2023 after several downgrades, saying that while economic slowdown was “quite evident” there was potential upside such as from a relaxation of China’s zero-COVID policy. Oil demand in 2023 will rise by 2.25 million barrels per day (bpd), or about 2.3 per cent, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) said in a monthly report, after growth of 2.55 million bpd in 2022. Both forecasts were unchanged from last month. “Although global economic uncertainties are high and growth risks in key economies remain tilted to the downside, upside factors that may counterbalance current and upcoming challenges have emerged as well,” OPEC said in the report. “A resolution of the geopolitical conflict in Eastern Europe and a relaxation of China’s zero-COVID policy could provide some upside potential,” the report said in a separate section. While keeping the annual demand growth forecasts steady, OPEC tr...

Chrysler parent Stellantis STLA-N said Tuesday it is recalling 1.4 million pickup trucks worldwide because tailgates may not latch properly and could open while driving. The automaker said the recall covers various 2019 through 2022 model year Ram 1500, 2500, and 3500 pickup trucks. The company said it has no reports of crashes or injuries but more than 800 warranty claims and other reports potentially related to the issue. Dealers will inspect the tailgate striker alignment to the box latch and adjust if necessary, the company said. The recall includes more than 1.23 million vehicles in the United States, 120,000 in Canada, 26,000 in Mexico and about 27,000 outside North America. Owner notification letters will be mailed in late January. The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said an unintended tailgate opening while driving could result in a loss of unsecured cargo, potentially creating a road hazard and increasing the risk of a crash. The automaker opened an inter...

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau bump elbows after the federal government unveiled COVID-19 spending plans. Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press Jason Clemens and Jake Fuss are economists with the Fraser Institute. An Auditor-General’s report recently cited billions in questionable spending in Ottawa’s management of handouts related to COVID-19. But while the report certainly raises questions (again) about competence, it should not mislead Canadians into believing that such failure is unique to the Trudeau government. We’ve seen much of the same from previous administrations. This is a larger problem of systemic government failure . This new assessment is damning indeed. Auditor-General Karen Hogan found $4.6-billion in overpayments to ineligible recipients, and recommended that the government investigate the nature of another $27.4-billion in spending. The AG also criticized Ottawa for failing to require social insurance numbers for workers in fi...

The average monthly cost to rent a home in Canada rose to a record $2,024 in November, new data show, and experts say this trend is showing no signs of stopping. The National Rental Report published Tuesday said the average price for rent in November was up 2.5 per cent compared with the month before. On average, renters are paying $224 more per month compared with a year ago, for a gain of 12.4 per cent. Explainer: Low-income renters in Canada can apply for a one-time payment of $500. Here’s what you need to know According to the report, the average cost of rent surpassed pre-pandemic prices by 10.5 per cent. While the average price for a one-bedroom rose 8.3 per cent in November to $1,710, two-bedroom rentals had the biggest spike, up 11.7 per cent from last year to $2,090. “Rents in Canada are rising at an exceptionally high speed, which is having a profound effect on housing affordability as interest rates continue to rise,” said Shaun Hildebrand, president of Urbanation, in a ne...