Article content continued

“We’re very stable. Unfortunately, we need everyone else to pick up before our economy can really start moving. So, we’re kind of at their mercy.”

Any sign of growing U.S. momentum would benefit Canada’s economy, which showed a strong rebound in July, according to the most recent monthly data.

But anything less than solid U.S. growth would pull us down, as well.

“This is a reminder that while Canada’s economy remains strong, we are still vulnerable to uncertainties outside of our borders, especially in the U.S. and Europe,” Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said Monday.

“We are focused on the priorities of Canadians — jobs, growth and long-term prosperity. Global uncertainty reminds us how important it is to maintain that focus.”

The current U.S. crises — first, the stop-gap spending measure to avoid a shutdown of non-essential government services and, second, a debt-ceiling deal to avoid a government default on Oct. 17 — could also delay the U.S. Federal Reserve’s plans to reduce its $85-billion-per-month bond-buying program.

“Hardened positions mean that this could easily last until the mid-October debt ceiling bill,” said Avery Shenfeld, chief economist at CIBC Capital Markets.

“October’s [Fed] meeting will not look like an opportune time to reconsider a start to tapering bond purchases, since we might, at that point, still have a spending bill that expires in mid-November,” he said.

“If the budget is settled with minimal changes to the existing plan, we still favour a December start to tapering.”