I'm sure this positive will quickly turn into a negative. Have you noticed that the people who drive the economy have not been listening to the doom & gloom economists? Everytime I turn on the news the reports of the economy doing better than expected is quickly followed by a caution from one of the big banks' economists or an ecnomics professor looking for his/her 15 seconds, telling us that the worst is not over. Greece or Europe or USA will bring Canada down. But the everyday person just keeps going - buying and selling our homes, borrowing money, investing money and opening or expanding our businesses. If the world economy is a such a guessing game then I'm thinking our guess is as good as the experts'.

What we continue to miss in all of this reporting is a comparison to a longer than 1 year period; say 10 years.

What we do know is that indicator activities are increasing rather than decreasing.

What was the GDP at its height and what is it now? In other words, when will we know that we got to where it was? More than % change has to be reported.

The 6.1% growth for the first quarter is an annualized rate. The actual increase in Q1 was 1.5%. On a monthly basis, March was the 7th consecutive month of increase.

I agree Annie. I will not be rushing out to spend my retirement nest egg because IPG says times are good.

our guess is not as good as theirs. these people look at data and interpret it for us. they understand the information but the future is always unpredictable. things change, our interpretation of information changes.

gus, that information is available on stats canada website, the imf website may have some information as well.

No our guess is as good as theirs. The data they use is all flawed and corrupted.

GDP for example is more than 50% made up of financials' and so an increase in financial wealth (paper wealth) skews the actual GDP. Most financial wealth tied to the stock market is complete fraud now with the computer programs of banksters like Goldman Sachs setting the markets through derivative leveraging and computer programs designed to set markets. They create more fraud everyday to carry on what is essentially now a ponzi scheme.

GDP no longer represents the actual service and industrial economy, and to use its figures as a basis for health of the economy is no longer a valid correlation. Its a figure used by banksters to legitimize financial metrics within their own world and has very little to do anymore with the real economy... its why their guess is no longer valid when they rely on information like that.

The real issue is the deficit crashing of our economies when the day of reckoning comes. No one will be able to predict how it transpires (the trigger), because when the markets shake the manipulation then the correction will happen in ways very few will be able to predict... human nature and free markets are inherently unpredictable.

The only real hard fact we have is that our currency is being taxed to pay for deficits and that eventually that tax bill shows itself through inflation... often misinterpreted as GDP growth.

All these numbers are a bunch of hooey. IPG gets its information from other sites, and then puts it out and pretends that they have a finger on the pulse of the City.

As an example. If you sold 75 houses in April, and you have over 125 Real Estate salesmen, then I suggest to you that some of these sales people never made a sale. In other words, no income for April.

Bang on gus!

ok i think its about time we start sourcing our data. its the same people saying stuff all the time on this site and time to back it up.

For ex. Eagleone
"GDP for example is more than 50% made up of financials' and so an increase in financial wealth (paper wealth) skews the actual GDP."
Please let me know where u got the number 50% from. also how does it skew it, on a damn bbq? sideways? crooked? up/down?

"GDP no longer represents the actual service and industrial economy, and to use its figures as a basis for health of the economy is no longer a valid correlation. Its a figure used by banksters to legitimize financial metrics within their own world and has very little to do anymore with the real economy... its why their guess is no longer valid when they rely on information like that."

"GDP no longer represents..." is a bold statement. back that stuff up or shut up. because u think is not valid enough reason.

Paplou

I agree IPG is kinda could be probably useless. but the example you use what are u saying?

"As an example. If you sold 75 houses in April, and you have over 125 Real Estate salesmen, then I suggest to you that some of these sales people never made a sale. In other words, no income for April."

what is this an example of. hows is this no income? u have sales of 75 properties what is this data of real estate information mean? no income for april ?? how is this relevant to all the other stuff u have not outlined

stringing together a bunch of irrelevant information and passing it off as whatever that was, is not helpful

I will ask a more basic question about the sale of houses as a financial indicator. Why is it? What percentage should be sold in any given month? Do the indicator "good health" "bad health" numbers change over time as in long range time such as decades? Do the numbers differ from community to community? It stands to reason that some communities are more stable than others. Some communities have lots of people move in for a couple of years and then move out as they move on to bigger and better things.

Communities in some countries are much more stable than in other countries. I have always considered North Americans to be a comparatively migratory bunch of people, often moving quite far away from the family unit from whence they came.

In the end, it is a number that is available because it is important to those involved in the real estate industry. Other than that, I think it is kind of a useless figure when one is trying to apply it to unique situations.

Sale of luxury items would seem to me to be a better indicator of economic well being. Prices at which things are offered, especially luxury goods and services, would be another indicator. For instance, what is the index of the relative cost of ocean cruises being offered? How many "sales" of ocean cruises have there been in PG in the past year when compared to previous years. Lets get the figures from the travel industry instead of working with the real estate industry. Of course, the travel indicator would also tell us a bit about how much money is leaving the City to be spent elsewhere.

north americans are comparatively migratory. really? the billion or so chinese and indians that are moving to urban centers are teleporting?

real estate numbers give good impression of the economy. it is a substantially large investment and it shows confidence if people are purchasing. three cruise ship weddings from prince george would make pg the economic hot spot by using ur "indicator"

what is a travel indicator? u have used the term indicator in so many ways i am not sure what it means. please take some basic economic courses if u want to be taken seriously.

if u dont like the data being used please start backing it up somehow. rambling on about topics u are clearly not educated in, is a waste of time.

Hood Rich. My point, (not very clear) is that of the 125 or so real estate salesmen at least 50 never made a penny in sales in April. Probably less in March. So why isnt the fact that a large number of people are unable to make a living in real estate a factor in economic growth.

The articles always put a spin on various items to show growth, but they do not go into any detail on the down side.

A 41.5% increase could be 4 business licences. If we had 5 last year and 10 this year it would mean an increase of 50%, so while the percentage number looks good, the reality is nothing.

Employment may be up, however how many people have dropped of the EI stats, who are still looking for work. Quite a few I would say, so again the number are suspect.\\

Surely we can do better, when we are paying mega bucks to these guys.