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A Tale of Two Outcomes

18 Dec 2020

Uneven recovery in the third quarter The economy rebounded from the shock of government mandated shutdowns due to the coronavirus, with real GDP rising 8.9 percent in the third quarter. [...] However, after declines of 1.9 percent in the first quarter and a record 11.3 percent in the second, real GDP remained 5.3 percent below the level before the downturn began. [...] This ignores the pos- sibility that both households and businesses, faced with the unprecedented uncertainty surrounding the shutdown of large parts of the non-essential economy that threw millions of Canadians out of work, chose to restructure their balance sheets in favour of holding cash above all other assets and that other types of savings declined. [...] Households savings surge in 2020 while business savings decline Household savings soared from 2.0 percent before the arrival of the virus to 27.5 percent in the second quarter and 14.6 percent in the third quarter of 2020. [...] Assured of their survival and not having to respond to either the marketplace or the stock market, government-owned corporations be- haved as if nothing of consequence was happening in the business landscape in the first two quarters of 2020.
politics economics economy finance recession science and technology canada banking loans money earnings loan bank saving capital account downturn economy, business and finance credit and debt macdonald-laurier institute macdonald–laurier institute
Pages
10
Published in
Ottawa, ON, CA

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