Conservatives blame ‘external factors’ for slide, economists say government choosing to let it go
Emanuella Enenajor likely caused more than a few politicians to choke on their Stampede pancakes last week.
The analyst with Bank of America Merrill Lynch was the first from a major financial institution to utter the dreaded R-word — recession.
Two consecutive quarters of decline are what the textbooks define as a recession.
Stuck in a ‘funk’
Statistics Canada has already told us GDP shrank by 0.6 per cent in the first quarter of 2015, and slid a further 0.1 per cent in April.
Enenajor has seen nothing to indicate May or June — the last two months of the second quarter — were any different.
“We’re stuck in a bit of a funk,” she said in an interview with CBC’s The House.
The oil shock has taken its toll on jobs, unemployment, economic development and the like.
From beneath his black Stetson at the annual Calgary Stampede parade last week, Prime Minister Stephen Harper kept his cool and even reckoned he’d seen worse.
“I’ve been in [Alberta] for 36 years now — I’ve seen a lot worse dips in the oil sector than this — and I am very confident the city and the province will bounce back quickly,” he told reporters.
While for obvious reasons the effects are felt most strongly in Alberta, they are being felt across the country.
Solid growth to come
Finance Minister Joe Oliver also appeared on The House this week, denying a recession has taken hold.
He said he believes there will be “solid growth for the full year,” in 2015, but concedes the first half will be rough.
“I think people understand the recent economic data is a result of external events,” Oliver said.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
