BCREA Nowcast

The BCREA Nowcast estimate of provincial economic growth (expressed as year-over-year growth in real GDP) for January 2021 is 1.4 per cent. We have also included a preliminary estimate for February 2021 of 2 per cent. Because the BCREA Nowcast is a year-over-year measure, we expect to see very large growth in coming months due to base-year effects as strong incoming 2021 data is compared to the lowest point of 2020 during the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Growth of provincial GDP is a key indicator of economic activity, but provincial GDP data is only available annually and with a considerable delay. That's why we developed the BCREA Nowcast - a tool for tracking monthly growth in the BC Economy. The Nowcast compiles monthly economic data into one easy to understand number, expressed as the year-over-year growth in the BC economy.

As the underlying economic data is released with a one- or two-month lag, our estimates for monthly growth will also lag real-time by two months (e.g., estimated growth in January will be published at the end of March). There are no adjustments to the model estimate except for those due to revisions to the underlying data.

For more information, please contact:
Brendon Ogmundson
Chief Economist
Direct: 604.742.2796
Mobile: 604.505.6793
Email: [email protected]

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