Calgary,
10
June
2020
|
15:57
America/Denver

Calgary & Region Economic Outlook 2020 – 2025 spring 2020 release is now available

The Calgary and Region Economic Outlook 2020 – 2025 spring 2020 release was posted on calgary.ca and distributed to subscribers today. The City of Calgary tracks economic indicators throughout the year to develop insights about the impacts of external events on the local economy to support the financial and physical planning of the city. It provides a useful basis for decision making by outlining and clarifying the economic opportunities and threats the region faces.

“When considering the economic impacts of the COVID-19 crisis it is important to remember this is a global issue with global impacts that are not unique to the Calgary Economic Region (CER),” said The City’s Chief Financial Officer Carla Male. “This year will be another significant challenge, but Calgary’s economy is resilient. Over the last several years Calgary has found efficiencies and addressed financial challenges to aid in our economic recovery. This work has strengthened our resilience and given us a strong base to build upon to address the economic impacts of COVID-19 and oil prices, and accelerate our recovery.”

Key points include:

  • Economic activities in Calgary and its major trading partners – the rest of Alberta, the rest of Can­ada, and the U.S. – are all expected to contract this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We expect the real GDP growth in the CER to rebound next year at 4.5 per cent, before trending down to an annual average of 2.0 per cent in 2022-2025.
  • Assuming the COVID-19 crisis fades in the second half of this year, we expect companies will gradually call back their temporarily laid-off workers. Our forecast for the CER la­bour market is a decline of total employment by 46,000 jobs in 2020. Jobs will start returning soon and employment in Calgary will eclipse January 2020 levels in 2022.
  • With relatively stable population growth, we expect housing starts in the city of Calgary to keep pace with household formation in the forecast period. We expect housing starts to average at 9,400 units a year in 2020-2025.

Calgary is a dynamic and resilient city and The City of Calgary and its partners are committed to our economic recovery to make life better every day for citizens, customers, communities and businesses. We recognize the impact COVID-19 has had on the global economy. As part of The City of Calgary’s efforts to help limit the economic impact of COVID-19, we have created the Economic Resilience Task Force (ERTF).

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