Many Canadians today are feeling the pinch and reining in their spending, waiting out harsh economic winds in a pattern of behaviour typical of major recessions and financial crashes in history.
The difference this time around? Canada’s not (technically) in a recession.
Economists typically define a recession as two consecutive quarters of negative growth in real gross domestic product, often accompanied by a surge in unemployment.
While the jobless rate in Canada stands at 6.4 per cent as of July, 1.5 percentage points higher than record lows seen just two years earlier, the Canadian economy has largely kept its head above water lately.
“In the past year, we’ve been flirting close (to a recession) with some very weak growth, but we haven’t had those two quarters of contraction,” says Charles St-Arnaud, the chief economist at Alberta Central, which represents credit unions in the province.
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