Madam Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member for West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country.
Let me start by giving two data points. Recently, Bloomberg commissioned a study conducted by Nanos Research. It was a four-week tracking poll ending September 20, and it was on the Canadian consumer confidence index. Canadian consumer confidence has reached a 29-month high. The last time we had this much Canadian consumer confidence was way back in April 2022. The second data point I would like to bring to our notice is the inflation rate. It has now come down to 2%. It is the eighth straight month that inflation is within the target set by the Bank of Canada.
Inflation hit a high way back in June 2022. Obviously, we all felt the pain of that inflation and the resulting interest rates. The inflation basically started during the pandemic and, postpandemic, due to supply chain disruptions, the inflation hit very high. The Bank of Canada had to do its duty to control inflation. It started dramatically raising interest rates. For the first time in the history of Canada, we saw a dramatic, huge rise in interest rates in a very short period of time. It affected all. It affected inflation, interest rates and mortgage payments. It affected all.
We felt the pain. The grocery costs and the grocery bills were high. The fuel costs got high. This created genuine frustration and anger among all Canadians.
It is not surprising that Canadians, now, are maybe opening up and ready to listen to the economic story. The politicians made use of this anger and frustration and amplified it. Not only did politicians amplify it, but also social media and the algorithms amplified it. They amplified this and allowed politicians to seize on the discontent to fuel the anger more. I think some of these people banked their political success on the failure of a Canadian economy. That is not going to be the case. The economy has done well compared to any other G7 country. The economic good news is bad news for a few politicians in Canada.
They advised us. They said that all the spending or the support programs we had launched to help needy Canadians was fuelling inflation further. They advised us to have austerity measures, but we continued to support Canadians in need. We stood firm. We now see inflation back to 2%.
Canada is the best performing economy in the entirety of the G7 countries. IMF recently made a report that said it forecasted that Canada's performance will be the best not only in 2024 but also in 2025, leading among all G7 countries. The world is being reshaped by four major shifts: green transition, artificial intelligence, geopolitics and friendshoring, and changing demographics. We have carefully looked at these four major changes that are reshaping the world, taken measures and made investments that will benefit Canadians today and tomorrow. We are already beginning to see the results.
In the forthcoming months and years, we will see the much more visible positive effects of what we have done so far. Through the mines to mobility strategy, we have seized on the changing transition to the clean economy. We have been investing in everything from the mining of critical minerals to the setting up of mineral processing companies, from battery plants to electrical vehicles manufacturing. We have been doing that. We are already seeing the good effects of that, but they will be much more visible in the coming months and years.
There are certain myths that have been propagated for a long time in Canada. Let me touch upon them.
One myth is that the Canadian federal government is spending high and that the debt is very high. However, we have the smallest deficit-to-GDP ratio amongst all G7 countries. I repeat, it is smallest deficit-to-GDP ratio among all of the G7 countries. Our net debt to GDP is also the lowest among all of the G7 countries. Colleagues need not take our word, or even the IMF's word, but they can take that of the rating companies, which are the final arbitrators in this. Let me quote the statement of Fitch Ratings from just two months back. On July 24, Fitch Ratings said, “Canada's ratings reflect strong governance, high per-capita income and a macroeconomic policy framework that has delivered steady growth and generally low inflation”. Taking a look at every G7 country, at their deficit to GDP, the net debt to GDP, or the ratings, we see that we are the best. That is a fact.
The second myth is that taxes are making Canada uncompetitive. That is very far from the truth. In fact, we have the lowest effective tax rates on new business in, again, all of the G7 countries. If someone goes back and checks the IMF reports or the OECD reports, they will find that the effective tax rate for new business is the lowest in Canada.
The third myth is that the government is driving investments away. Again, this is a myth that has been propagated by politicians. Usually these days, I do not invest in the stock market, but a couple of days back, I just happened to look to see where the stock market is at. Canadian TSX year-to-date gain has reached 14%. In the first nine months, there are 14% returns from the Canadian TSX. I think the budget was on April 16. Since the budget, the stock exchange index has returned more than 10%. I am not saying that that should be the only criteria to measure what Canada is doing for investments.
The second, again, hard cash measurement data I have has to do with foreign direct investment. There is no charity in business. Multinational companies do not invest just for the sake of investing or just to make the Canadian federal government look good. They invest because they see opportunity. Canada has a high rate of foreign direct investment. I think Canada is second or third among all OECD countries. Per capita, the federal direct investment is the best among all G7 countries.
In closing, I quickly want to say that we are not perfect. Are there any economic indicators that we are still lagging behind? Yes, such as productivity, for example. However, the best part of Canada is that we know we have to improve and we are working hard to improve. That is what makes Canada great. I am so proud to be a part of this moment when we are transitioning into a clean economy in a much greater way.
