Paul Martin commentary
We’re getting a slew of economic reports this week that offer a snapshot of how the national and provincial economies are working and it’s mixed.
All of this is against a backdrop of the country falling into recession, or a technical recession, at the end of the first quarter of the year.
But it may not be your Dad’s recession as economists say this one is unusual because we some positive data that debunks the recession idea. And, besides that, we have been losing people so on a per capita basis we’re doing alright, not having hit the requirements for a recession.
Here in Saskatchewan, the manufacturing and wholesale data that came out this week suggest we are finding our footing again. Manufacturing had been one of our strong suits but fell into a slowdown about a year ago. Now we have numbers showing we’re moving up again. Revenues for the sector – which is largely export oriented – were up nearly 20-percent in April compared to last year. And wholesale industries saw gains of 18-percent… the biggest improvement in the country.
