BC economy expected to expand by healthy 3.2% in 2007

<http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=d5784f75-410c-46f8-95dd-d45a1a6e313f&k=89403>

The BC economy is expected to have growth of 3.2% over the next year despite the impact of the slow growing US economy. A survey conducted by Metropolitan Outlook observed that Vancouver remained the country’s third fastest growing city while Abbotsford dropped to the 5^th and Victoria dropped to the 20^th. This year Vancouver’s economy is supported by construction sector and solid employment gains that will boost consumer spending; overall boosting the city’s economy by 3.1%. In Abbotsford a strong domestic demand will affect the city’s growth by 3.0%, but a slowdown in key services will cause to a slow down in the economy’s growth in Victoria to 2.1%. Calgary and Edmonton will have slowed half of their growth rate in this year compared to year 2006. Announced by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, the real GDP growth is 2.8% in 2006 and will slow to a 2.4% due to the lowered US demand for Canadian exports. Therefore, Quebec and Ontario has to bear the burden of having a slowed economy due to lowered US demand, but Calgary and Edmonton wouldn’t be affected as much because of their high prices for energy and other commodities.

Relationship to Chapter 5

In Chapter 5, we studied about GDP and learned that GDP can roughly express a country’s level of business activity. From the article above, we can see that BC’s economy has an average growth of 3.2%. Furthermore, the article described each of the main cities’ in British Columbia about their economic growth along with a reason saying why. In Vancouver, our economic growth this year is 3.1%, which is a pretty good growth rate due to the support from construction sector and the solid employment. This is affected by the building of Olympic structures needed in 2010 and created many job opportunities. In Calgary and Edmonton their economic growth is always in an increasing rate because they have natural resources such as oil, which is very important to now a day society. This source of income mainly increased the GDP in those cities by each year. Achieving a 3.2% growth in GDP is a pretty healthy situation. However, if BC legalizes marijuana, they can increase their GDP probably by another 3 to 4% from study conducted by Cannabis BC. Nevertheless, 3.2% is a healthy number for the growth of economy and for Vancouver; next year would most likely increase due to more job opportunities from the effects of 2010 Winter Olympics.