Canada Economy Overview

Canada Economy Overview

Northern America

ECONOMY: GENERAL INFORMATION

Canada is a very rich, self-sufficient country and possesses almost all kinds of raw materials, both mining and agricultural, the latter sector in which it ranks among the top world exporters. A country today characterized by an advanced economy, Canada was characterized, until the mid-nineteenth century, by a massive exploitation of its immense natural resources: from hunting fur animals, fishing and forest exploitation, intensive use of soils for agriculture in the Atlantic provinces and in the Central Plains, to mining. Politically, this first phase coincided with the relatively recent period of colonial dependence on Great Britain. However, when at the beginning of the century XX Canada gained independence in partner. The simultaneous development of the economic power of the United States then favored the passage of the country into the US sphere of influence. The first important railways were built and commercial traffic increased, while raw materials, especially timber and minerals, began to be processed locally, giving rise to the first important industries. This evolution favored the accumulation of capital allowing to stimulate, according to the classic process of industrialization, further initiatives aimed at using all the natural wealth of the country. However, only after World War II did the country take on the actual role of a great economic power: industry, which until then had been used almost exclusively in the first transformation of local products, enormously expanded its range of applications in the high-tech manufacturing sector, reaching very high levels of profit for the first time. The high standard of living of the population, comparable to that of the United States, is therefore due to the high productivity of industry and the efficiency of services. The composition of the workforce clearly expresses the transformations that have taken place in the Canadian economic structure: in just over a century the percentage of those employed in agricultural and mining activities has dropped from 70% to 1.9%, compared to the secondary and tertiary sectors which they employ 19.2% and 78.9% of the active population respectively. Although now, thanks to the vastness of the resources at its disposal and the relative smallness of its population, per capita of US $ 46,361 million in 2018), in twelfth place among the countries with the highest human development index, according to estatelearning, Canada is not free from economic problems and difficulties. During the last decade of the twentieth century. periods of growth have in fact alternated with moments of recession. Indeed, the overcoming of GDP by the public debt has contributed to raising interest rates, causing a negative decline in productive investments; at the same time, despite a marked depreciation of the Canadian dollar against the US dollar, and hence an increase in exports to the US, some 250,000 jobs were lost between 1990 and 1994. The economic policy set up since 1994 on the reduction of the public deficit, however, has allowed, in just four years, to bring down the inflation at around 1%, promoting economic growth again. Furthermore, fiscal policy has been aimed above all at reducing the financial needs of the public sector as much as possible. While on the one hand this has kept the country’s competitiveness low and the growth rate modest (2000), on the other it has also made it possible to keep inflation and unemployment within limited limits. In the same years, corrective measures were also introduced on the monetary front, with the reduction of the interest rate (1996), and on the social security level (1998) with the introduction of a new pension plan, characterized by higher contributions and by greater severity in granting pensions and benefits. In parallel, NAPHTHA (the North American free trade agreement, signed by Canada, the United States and Mexico in 1992, in force since 1994) – has contributed to stabilizing the economic framework. Although dependence on US markets is still high (production cycles are completed across borders, 70% of foreign investments are represented by US capital, North American financial groups are present on the boards of directors of three quarters of Canadian companies), the country has expanded the range of its commercial partners, confirming in 2007 the data of economic growth, after the decline of the early 2000s. GDP grew by 2.7%, inflation and unemployment rates fell, the public budget exceeded GDP, albeit slightly, and the trade balance closed in surplus.

Edmonton

Edmonton [ edməntn], capital of the province of Alberta, Canada, around the North Saskatchewan, (2019). 1.0 million residents (1.45 million residents in the metropolitan area).

Seat of a Catholic archbishop, a bishop of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church abroad as well as an Anglican, a Ukrainian Uniate and a Russian Orthodox bishop; two universities (including the University of Alberta, founded in 1908), industrial research facilities, museums, Art Gallery of Alberta, planetarium, zoological garden. Center of rich farm areas and large oil and gas fields; Oil refineries, chemical, food and beverage industry, mechanical engineering, metal processing; Finance; Supply Center for the Canadian Northwest; Transport hub, international airport.

Founded as a trading post after 1807, capital of Alberta since 1905. Location of one of the world’s largest shopping centers, the West Edmonton Mall.

Canada Economy Overview