BoC Business Outlook Survey: Business activity is continuing to gain momentum

Key highlights from the Bank of Canada's 'Business Outlook Survey - 2017 Summer':

• Building on a pickup in sales over the past 12 months, firms expect sales growth to improve further, driven by strength in services and recovering activity tied to the commodity sector
• Although the balance of opinion on investment edged down, plans to increase spending remain widespread and have become more focused on expanding capacity to accommodate stronger demand
• Capacity pressures increased overall, although from low levels in regions tied to energy. Together with rising indicators of labour shortages, responses suggest that slack is being absorbed
• The Business Outlook Survey indicator, which summarizes the survey results, continued to move up to its highest level since 2011, suggesting a broad-based improvement in business sentiment