Economic growth across Canada is expected to remain “subdued” in 2013, but B.C. and other resource provinces can expect stronger growth in key economic areas such as housing and exports, in 2014, a new TD Economics report predicts.
Economic growth rates are not expected to increase past 2.8% this year across Canada. A sluggish housing market in B.C., Ontario and Quebec, combined with government restraint, will continue to put a drag on growth.
That drag is being offset, however, by improving exports and a relatively low Canadian dollar, with seven out of 10 provinces recording improved export numbers.
While lower precious metal prices are expected to continue to hinder B.C.’s mining industry, B.C.’s forestry sector is benefitting from a recovering housing market in the U.S.
B.C. can also expect to benefit from increasing natural gas prices, according to the report.
“The B.C. housing market appears to have endured a year-and-a-half-long housing market correction and is now showing signs of stabilizing,” the report states.
Home sales in B.C. are expected to improve through the second half of 2013.
As for employment, the report states that B.C. has been “tracking well below the national average and is expected to post the slowest annual increase since the downturn this year. Employment should pick up in 2014, as more of the excesses in the provincial housing market are addressed and global growth numbers improve.”
