Canada may follow the U.S. into a recession, according to an economist interviewed for a recent article in MDM, Forecast: Canada Faces a Rough First Half.”Demand for Canada’s products in the U.S. continues to fall despite a weakening of the Canadian dollar. About a third of Canada’s GDP is based on exports to the U.S.
What’s more, commodity prices and demand for raw materials have softened, putting a damper on the historically strong resources sector. And though Canada’s banking system has not seen the same turmoil as in the U.S., more businesses are reporting tighter credit conditions in the final quarter of the year.
Read the full story on Canada’s economy.
Motion Industries President Bill Stevens recently told MDM that the distributor is seeing a slowdown in Canada:
“Ontario, because of its large automotive industry segment, is very slow. Mining has been volatile. One long strike was finally settled, so it is starting to come back a bit. Approximately 40 paper mills have been closed in the past five years. So certainly that segment has changed, but there’s still a lot of paper in Canada.”
But, he says, the Canadian market continues to be of great interest to the distributor. Motion will do more than $200 million in sales in Canada this year. Read the rest of the interview with Stevens.
