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ARTICLE · 18 JUNE 2024

Economic Outlook: Saving, Investment And Productivity Growth

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Since 2006, the year before the onset of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), real GDP per capita in Canada has grown at an average annual rate of 0.4%, well below the average of 1.6% of the prior years.

CanadaStrategy
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Economic Outlook: Saving, Investment and Productivity Growth

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GDP per Capita and Productivity Growth: A Look Back

Since 2006, the year before the onset of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), real GDP per capita in Canada has grown at an average annual rate of 0.4%, well below the average of 1.6% of the prior years. Cumulatively, since 2006, our real income has grown by a disappointing 5.4%. On the trend of the prior 30 years, it would have risen by 35%.

The world has changed since 2006. We went through and recovered from not only the GFC, but also COVID. We signed trade agreements with European and Asia Pacific partners, renegotiated the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), then saw globalization stall in its tracks. We traded our Blackberries for iPhones and then witnessed the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) partly pioneered in our own institutions. Start-ups emerged, some grew, many disappeared. Energy markets

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