There was a 0.4% decline in December.
Canada’s per capita GDP decline 0.4% in December, the sixth consecutive month in which it fell.
As noted in a highly detailed chart by former Statistics Canada economist Philip Smith, Canada’s per capita GDP is now down 1.2% since June.
https://twitter.com/PhilSmith26/status/1630601831653965824
The importance of per capita GDP
Per capita GDP is the best way to get a sense of how strong an economy really is.
It’s easy for a country to ‘grow’ their economy by printing a large amount of money and increasing the population through migration, but that doesn’t tell us anything about actual productivity.
Falling per capita GDP means productivity is lagging, and it means the average person is actually getting poorer in real terms.
Canada’s weak per capita GDP is a key reason why a majority of Canadians say they already feel our country is in a recession.
While Canada has not had two consecutive quarters of negative growth, Canadians have been falling behind on an individual basis for quite some time.
With wages also failing to keep pace with inflation, Canadians are getting poorer in real terms.
Spencer Fernando
