Paul Martin's Business Update - April 24th, 2014

Paul Martin's Business Update - April 24th, 2014

The provincial economy is showing signs of settling in at its current pace.

A broad range of indicators that track the economy’s performance have begun to plateau, settling in at a rate that shows neither growth or contraction. Basically, what we see right now is what we get.

The latest markers to show this trend are wholesale and retail activity. Volumes at wholesalers was down slightly in February compared to January but still slightly ahead for the year ending in February. Similarly, retail sales volumes were virtually unchanged in February when compared to January and the previous year.

We’ve also see capital spending hit a plateau – north of $20 billion a year – for the third year in a row but still about three times the levels we saw a decade earlier which is quite a remarkable run. Housing construction is also levelling off after nearly a decade of rapid expansion dedicated to keeping up with population growth, which interestingly, is one of the indicators that is not slowing up….we are still on pace to add roughly 20,000 people this year.

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