Economy Is Still Growing

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By Elli Davis, May 23, 2010

Growth by Charlie Ambler

Earlier this week, Statistics Canada reported that last month, Canada’s index of leading economic indicators grew once again – for the 11th month in a row. The April rise was slightly higher than expected by the economists. The growth was reported to be 0.9 percent, with 8 out of 10 the components followed, increasing. The housing market was one of the strong factors influencing this increase.

The housing index, which is basically a composite of housing starts and existing home sales, rose by 0.8 percent thanks to high housing starts which exceeded the home sales, whose figures weren’t as good. Even higher growth, of 1.1 percent, was recorded in furniture and appliance sales. On the other hand, sales of other durable goods (cars, for instance) declined by 0.7 percent.

Overall, the results are not bad, are they? Good to see that the housing market in our country is continuing to grow. However, its rise was slightly lower than the average growth of all the composites, therefore I am a little unhappy with this result.