Oil Price Hits Energy Producer Provinces in Canada

As economists scramble to rejig their economic forecasts in the wake of the oil price plunge, Toronto-Dominion Bank is the latest to calculate Canada’s “changing of the guard.”

Ontario is now projected to lead the provinces in average economic growth over the next two years, with British Columbia and Alberta just behind.

“Oil-rich provinces have recorded the sharpest downgrades in their respective outlooks,” economists Craig Alexander, Derek Burleton and Jonathan Bendiner said in today’s report.

“On the flip side, the outlook is more upbeat for most non-resource based economies,” they added.

“Solid economic growth from the U.S., another downward leg in the loonie and lower energy costs should provide a lift to manufacturing-based economies … This marks a changing of the guard, as Alberta has recorded a sizeable growth advantage over the rest of the country in recent years.”

TD now forecasts that economic growth in 2015 and 2016 will average 2.5 per cent in Ontario, 2.4 per cent in British Columbia and 2.3 per cent in Alberta.

TD cut its forecasts for the oil provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador.

“It will not likely be long before the income shock from the recent plunge in oil prices will filter through to the labour markets in the affected regions,” the TD economists warned.

via Globe and Mail

Content is for general information purposes only. It is not investment advice or a solution to buy or sell securities. Opinions are the authors; not necessarily that of OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc. or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers or directors. If you would like to reproduce or redistribute any of the content found on MarketPulse, an award winning forex, commodities and global indices analysis and news site service produced by OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc., please access the RSS feed or contact us at info@marketpulse.com. Visit https://www.marketpulse.com/ to find out more about the beat of the global markets. © 2023 OANDA Business Information & Services Inc.

Alfonso Esparza

Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse
Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
Alfonso Esparza