The S&P Global Canada Services PMI is compiled by S&P Global from responses to questionnaires sent to a panel of around 400 service sector companies. The sectors covered include consumer (excluding retail), transport, information, communication, finance, insurance, real estate and business services. The panel is stratified by detailed sector and company workforce size, based on contributions to GDP. Survey responses indicate the direction of change compared to the previous month. The indices vary between 0 and 100, with a reading above 50 indicating an overall increase compared to the previous month, and below 50 an overall decrease. The headline figure is the Services Business Activity Index, which is a diffusion index calculated from a question that asks for changes in the volume of business activity compared with one month previously.
A higher than expected figure should be seen as positive (bullish) for the CAD while a lower than expected figure should be seen as negative (bearish) for the CAD.