Thursday, June 28, 2012

Bad Quebec First Quarter GDP Growth

Here's a National Post article reporting Quebec's GDP growth in the first quarter:

The province’s gross domestic product grew by 0.2% in the first quarter of 2012, the same as the two quarters before, according to data released Thursday by Quebec’s government statistical agency. Its 0.6% annualized growth rate for the first three months of the year compares to 1.9% for Canada as a whole.

Wikipedia's reports Quebec's population growth rate at 0.7% a year in 2006. So for the last three quarters, GDP growth per capita in Quebec has been basically zero. Considering the student disruptions recently I can't see the second quarter number being that great either. Quebec has actually done a reasonable job in reducing their deficit, mainly by raising taxes. I'm wondering if this has been impacting GDP growth of late.

Hopefully Ontario's number for the first quarter will be out soon. I'm very curious to see that. Quebec's bad number is clearly dragging the Canadian number down. I doubt Ontario's number will be as bad as Quebec's, but you never know.

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