By Dr. Jim Simmons and Shizue Kamikihara

This publication has been prepared by the Centre for the Study of Commercial Activity for the use of its members; and to underline the importance of these activities within the Canadian economy.  We try to update this publication every two years to reflect the rapid changes in the industry; and over time we hope to extend and improve the coverage.

One immediate practical application of this report is to point out to Statistics Canada and other data-gathering agencies the inadequacy of their coverage of these important economic sectors.  As will evident, there are some massive gaps in the data. This report is based on a file of over one hundred time series, describing variables relevant to market analysts.  These measures cover the period from 1960 to the present.  From this material we have selected a small number of measures and relationships for discussion in the report.  Because of the many problems in the compilation of the data, this report is circulated with a major caveat: It is necessary to take note of the data source for a particular piece of information.  For the most part, the data obtained from various sources are not directly comparable.  The source of information is identified in each table; use the data with care!