The Business Council of British Columbia has downgraded its forecast for the province’s economy in 2020.
It had been anticipating a 2.2% boost to the economy in 2020, but in its latest report it has reduced that figure to an even 2%.
Speaking on The Jeff Andreas Show, Vice President Ken Peacock says there are a number of factors leading to that including the challenges in the forest industry as well as a decrease in retail spending and total exports. “Most of those have been trending down for six months, maybe upwards of a year and then mid-point of 2019 the labour market sort of shifted quite notable and the employment level started to slip. We’re seeing kind of wide spread job losses at least across the services sector and the goods sector. So there are a number of indicators pointing to softer growth.”
Peacock says the forestry piece is the easiest to identify as a reason as it also contributes to other sectors. “Do think with this general slow down, with difficulty in the resource space, exports falling, that you are seeing some knock off effects in other areas. So I do expect to see a little bit slower growth in the professional service segment, it’s already showed up and that’s likely going to continue into next year.”
Peacock says despite the decrease, BC is still looking better off than the majority of the country.
“The interesting thing is that there are so many things keeping this provincial economy afloat. If I had to assess some risks of course the obvious one is the coronavirus, but that’s really so uncertain that I can’t assign any risk or probability for what’s going to happen there. But, absence of full blown pandemic, which really does have wide-spread implications, I think more the risks for the provincial economy are on the upside. More building activity, could see the pipeline go through, could see some stronger activity in the States towards the second half of the year. So there is some potential that we could come in above expectations which would be a good thing.”
The next projection will come out sometime in mid-April.
Click here to read the full report.
https://soundcloud.com/user-965676831/jeff-andreas-show-ken-peacock-feb-6
