BCREA Nowcast

The BCREA Nowcast estimate of provincial economic growth (expressed as year-over-year growth in real GDP) for January is 1.1 per cent. For comparison, year-over-year growth in the Canadian economy in January was 0.9 per cent. The preliminary estimate for February shows a growth uptick, reaching a year-over-year growth rate of 2.1 per cent.

At a regional level, our economic region nowcasts continue to show strong growth in the Lower Mainland but sluggish growth in the Vancouver Island and Kootenay regions. Growth in the Northern region is well back into positive territory, but the Thompson Okanagan economy appears to have significantly weakened in recent months.

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]