Another economic tracker avoids the ‘R’ word
Posted Jul 28, 2015 7:33 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The Federal Government and the Bank of Canada are refusing to use the word recession to describe the country’s economy and now a group of economists are also stating the nation “is not in a recession.”
Mike Eppel, with the 660 NEWS Business Centre said encouraging job and housing markets are keeping things on a positive track.
According to members of C. D. Howe Institute’s business cycle council, a resilient labour market is offsetting the downturn of the oil and mining industries, keeping Canada’s economy just above ‘break even’.
The statement issued following a group meeting earlier this month says the most recent statistics, while weak, did not provide evidence that Canada had indeed entered an economic downturn.
The stakes around using the ‘r-word’ to describe the drop in output are amplified with the upcoming federal election campaign.
The council is not waiting for Statistics Canada’s next report on GDP, due Friday morning. It has forecast flat economic output for May after four months of economic decline.
