Today on the show, we welcome Institutional portfolio manager Ilan Kolet to the program. Ilan is part of the Global Asset Allocation team, which manages approximately $77. 2 billion in multi-asset class funds for Canadian investors. Ilan gives an overview of the global markets, why we might appear to be in a recession, and how the GAA is positioning themselves in this current market environment. Bloomberg recently described Canada as “appearing to be in a recession.” Ilan points out that might in fact be true, as the flow of data in Canada has stalled. Our GDP flat-lined post recovery and we may in fact look back at this as a recession after some data revision. He adds it’s not going to get easier with elevated debt loans and lots of tightening from the Bank of Canada. Even with the Canadian dollar taking a dive, our economy appears to be resilient, which Ilan says is more akin to sustainability. Nevertheless, even with elevated rates of debt and high interest rates, growth in Canada hasn’t slowed down and our unemployment rates have been relatively unaffected. The GAA team does expect and is positioned for a further weakening of the Canadian dollar. He adds they are underweight Canadian equities and the dollar and overweight inflation protected assets, meaning commodity producers and inflation protected debt. Overall, Ilan says they are very close to their strategic allocation.

Recorded on October 31, 2023.

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