Alberta economy stabilizing thanks to small increase in oil
Posted Jan 12, 2017 9:10 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The Alberta economy seems to be slowly stabilizing with the small increase in oil prices, and the majority of layoffs in the province’s rear-view mirror.
However, ATB Chief Economist Todd Hirsch says a real sign of positive times will be when consumers start buying those big ticket items again.
“One of the things I’ll be looking at is housing prices and the other one is vehicle sales. Those are two things that people tend to put off if they’re not feeling confident,” he said. “Other things in the retail world — you know groceries, gasoline, children’s clothes — you have to buy those things, so they’re not as good of an indicator in consumer confidence.”
Hirsch adds confidence among workers and consumers has a big impact on the economy. and he is optimistic we will see that in 2017.
