3.5 year – 2.10% + MORE Apr 15th

BEIJING – China’s economic growth slumped to a six-year low as manufacturing and retail sales cooled in the first quarter, stepping up pressure for Beijing to keep its overhaul of the world’s second-largest economy on track.
Growth declined to 7 per cent from the previous quarter’s 7.3 per cent, official data showed Wednesday. That was China’s weakest performance since the global financial crisis, when growth fell to 6.1 per cent in the first quarter of 2009.
Much of the decline has been self-imposed as communist leaders try to steer China to more sustainable growth driven by domestic consumption following the past decade’s explosive expansion based on trade and investment. But an unexpectedly sharp downturn over the past year has fueled fears of job losses and social tensions.
“China’s economy is slowing at a rate with which the government is probably uncomfortable,” said Tom Rafferty of the Economist Intelligence Unit in a report.
Beijing has cut interest rates twice since November and launched targeted measures to help exporters and other industries…

Pay less taxes when selling investment real estate by keeping meticulous paper trails (jonathansloane/Getty Images)
There’s less than two weeks before the April 30 deadline to file your personal income tax and, if you sold an investment property in 2014, you’ll need to gather a bit more paperwork than the regular T-slips (such as your employer-issued T4, the investor-focused T3 and the interest and dividend showing T5 slips being the most common).
For instance, do you have a file with all your expense receipts for every year you owned the property before you sold it last year? If not, then you can kiss those deductions goodbye. That’s because the Canada Revenue Agency now has a zero-tolerance policy on undocumented expenses.
Don’t worry, you won’t need to send in all the receipts but you will need documentation to help you sort out your deductions when filing your return and you’ll need them to support your deductions should you get audited.
Also, contrary to popular belief banking records and credit card statements are not adequate forms of documenting expenses for your investment property…

ReutersIran says it will use influence to broker peace in YemenReutersLISBON (Reuters) – Iran's foreign minister said on Wednesday that his country would use all its influence to broker a peace deal for Yemen in order to end Saudi-led air strikes against Houthi rebel forces allied to Iran. "We are a major force in the region and we …CM Shahbaz left for Saudi Arabia to assure Pakistan's supportThe Nationall 865 news articles »

This GIC rate is offered by DUCA Financial Services and was updated on 2015-04-01. Click on the link above to get more details or apply online.

Looking for a Toronto condo rental? You’re in luck. (Getty Images/Zoom Photographics)
TORONTO – A new report by condo research firm Urbanation suggests Toronto’s condo market has become more renter friendly due to a glut of supply and shifting demographics. Although the number of units rented in the first three months of 2015 grew by 11 per cent compared with a year ago, the report says new listings shot up by 21 per cent as a slew of newly completed condo units came on the market. Meanwhile, average rents grew at a slower pace and even declined in some neighbourhoods — perhaps a surprising development in a city where the booming real estate market continues drive up already sky-high prices for homebuyers.
» Top 25 Toronto neighbourhoods to buy in
Condo rents grew by 1.1 per cent annually to an average of $2.37 per square foot across the city, but declined in several submarkets, including the downtown core, where they slipped by 2.1 per cent. The statistics come just as the rental apartment market is poised to spike, after stagnating for the past decade while developers focused on building condo towers…