Thursday, March 28, 2024
ADVT 
National

Economy Significantly Weaker Ending 2019: PBO

The Canadian Press, 13 Feb, 2020 08:54 PM

    OTTAWA - Canada's economy slowed "sharply" in the final quarter of 2019, the parliamentary budget office said Thursday in its February economic and fiscal report.

     

    And the new coronavirus outbreak, combined with lower-than-expected business spending, will likely push economic growth lower in the first quarter of 2020, the PBO projected.

     

    "We expect real GDP to grow by 1.5 per cent in the first quarter of 2020," on an annual basis, the report said.

     

    "While some of the impact of the disruptions is expected to be reversed, we project slower growth due in part to the coronavirus and weaker business investment."

     

    The outbreak, which has directly affected China the most but has also been felt by a number of countries including Canada, could shave 0.3 percentage points off Canada's economic-growth prediction for the beginning quarter of 2020, although the PBO said that was not a certainty.

     

    "Estimates of the overall impact of the coronavirus are highly uncertain at this time."

     

    The country's overall annual growth rate dropped to an annualized 0.3 per cent in the fourth quarter, the PBO said, a projection that was "significantly weaker" than the 1.6 per cent growth rate predicted in its fall report.

     

    Parliamentary budget officer Yves Giroux blamed the fourth-quarter weakness mainly on what he described as temporary disruptions in the mining, oil and gas, motor vehicle and rail transportation sectors.

     

    The report also predicted the federal budgetary deficit for fiscal year 2019-20 will reach $23.5 billion — roughly 10 per cent higher than projected in November — as a result of new government spending announced in the December economic and fiscal update.

     

    "An additional $800 million in fiscal developments adds to the budgetary deficit due to higher operating expenses, which are partially offset by stronger revenues," the report said.

     

    Those additional operating expenses were largely the result of higher current service costs for pension and other future benefits that were not factors in the PBO's November report.

     

    MORE National ARTICLES

    Supreme Court Of Canada To Hear Appeals On Solitary Confinement

    Supreme Court Of Canada To Hear Appeals On Solitary Confinement
    The Supreme Court of Canada will revisit the decisions of courts in British Columbia and Ontario that said the federal law allowing prolonged solitary confinement in prison was unconstitutional.

    Supreme Court Of Canada To Hear Appeals On Solitary Confinement

    Federal NDP Seeks Provincial Support For National Pharmacare Plan

    The New Democrats are asking the provinces to support their promised universal pharmacare legislation, hoping to win premiers over by calling on Ottawa to increase federal health transfers.

    Federal NDP Seeks Provincial Support For National Pharmacare Plan

    Auctioneer Ordered To Pay Collector For Knowingly Selling Fake Inuit Statue

    A high-end auction house has been ordered to further compensate a British art collector for selling him a statue it claimed was by a renowned Inuit artist, even though it knew the piece was fake.

    Auctioneer Ordered To Pay Collector For Knowingly Selling Fake Inuit Statue

    Supreme Court Won't Hear Appeals Of Couple Convicted In Diabetic Son's Death

    The Supreme Court of Canada will not hear the appeal of a couple found guilty of killing their diabetic teenage son.

    Supreme Court Won't Hear Appeals Of Couple Convicted In Diabetic Son's Death

    Canada's Climate Goals For Power On Track

    Canada's Climate Goals For Power On Track
    Canada appears poised to rack up a climate-change win, says a recent government report submitted to the United Nations.

    Canada's Climate Goals For Power On Track

    Horgan Says Pipeline Protests At Legislature Left Him 'Despondent'

    Premier John Horgan says anti-pipeline protests that saw hundreds of people block entrances to the B.C. legislature are unacceptable and wrong.

    Horgan Says Pipeline Protests At Legislature Left Him 'Despondent'

    PrevNext