Canadian Economic Outlook by BMO Capital Markets
Douglas Porter, Managing Director and Deputy Chief Economist at BMO Capital Markets, returned to the Dairy Conference this year with his economic outlook for the coming year.
In the afternoon breakout session, he predicts, “despite global risks such as the US fiscal cliff and Europe’s sovereign debt crisis, BMO forecasts moderate growth of 2.0% in Canadian GDP for 2013.” With increasing ties to Asia and growing investments in mining and energy, should help BC modestly outperform the national economy. However, Douglas noted that “risks to BC’s growth include housing affordability and the transition away from the HST.”
Douglas further reported the Consumer Price Index for Food in October was 2.0% year over year. The US drought and other factors will put some upward pressure on prices for the coming year. And equally relevant for dairy producers, interest rates are predicted to remain low for the near future.
Again, we would like to thank Douglas Porter for speaking at the conference for a second year in a row.
