Bank of Canada governor Stephen Poloz speaks with a guest after delivering a speech in Toronto on Dec. 12, 2019.Linda Nazareth is the principal of Relentless Economics and senior fellow for economics and population change at the Macdonald Laurier Institute.
Forget 2019: Looking back would just bring us all down. Who wants to relive trade insanity, political battles and a global economy that spent the year on the brink of recession? Instead, let’s look ahead to what 2020 might bring us in terms of the economy and the labour market. It will be a mixed bag for sure, but also a chance to start fresh and perhaps to make new mistakes instead of old ones.
The global economy went through a tough time in 2019, and the pitched trade battles between the United States and China took the world close to recession. Now, between some hope of an end to them, as well as hastily lowered interest rates around the world, the alarm bells are rescinding. That is a bullet dodged for Canada, which would have been dragged down with everyone else.Although there may not be an all-out recession, the first part of 2020 might make that hard to believe.