{"id":394663,"date":"2026-01-07T20:52:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T20:52:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/394663\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T20:52:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T20:52:17","slug":"deloitte-sees-canadian-economic-growth-slowing-to-1-5-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/394663\/","title":{"rendered":"Deloitte sees Canadian economic growth slowing to 1.5% in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Stainless steel coils wait to be pressed into sheets in Montreal. Deloitte’s chief economist says trade and private sector investment are two major trends to watch this year.Christopher Katsarov\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

A new report forecasts Canadian growth will slow to 1.5 per cent this year from 1.7 per cent in 2025.<\/p>\n

Dawn Desjardins, chief economist at Deloitte Canada, said she is cautiously optimistic though that the economy<\/a> will gain momentum through the second half of the year. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOverall growth is probably going to be a bit slower than in 2025. But when we\u2019re thinking about the setup for 2027, if we\u2019re correct about this momentum building in 2026, the second half, I think it sets up nicely for 2027,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Desjardins said last year was mired in disruptions and policy uncertainty, but that fears of a significant global economic slowdown \u201cproved unfounded\u201d as a recession in Canada did not materialize.<\/p>\n

\u201cBelow the surface, however, volatility in trade activity played a bigger-than-usual role in the Canadian economic data and masked a softening in consumption and a pullback in business investment,\u201d the report reads.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Desjardins said two key trends to watch this year are trade and investment, with the review of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement scheduled for July, and the federal government\u2019s plans to stimulate billions in investment<\/a> from the private sector outlined in its latest budget.<\/p>\n

The report said the USMCA review<\/a> will be pivotal, and potential changes that restrict or eliminate access to the key American market present a risk, but her baseline assumption is that Canada will be able to maintain its favourable trading relationship with the U.S. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat will alleviate some of this uncertainty. Now, that\u2019s not assured, but it is our assumption. And we aren\u2019t assuming that we\u2019re going to necessarily see tariffs on specific industries go away, so there\u2019s still going to be that impact on the economy,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

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Business investment may hit a turning point, Desjardins said, as firms get more clarity on trade and see support from the federal government, particularly in the infrastructure and natural resource sectors.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Getting more firms to invest could also help improve some of Canada\u2019s long-standing issues around productivity, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to arm our workforce to be able to improve our productivity, our living standards (and) wages,\u201d Desjardins said.<\/p>\n

Regarding the health of the consumer, she expects spending to be softer in the first half of the year but says it could ramp-up in the second half if there are also improvements in the labour market. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBut overall for the year, our numbers don\u2019t show a huge increase in spending. And the other factor, of course, is that we are seeing a population that is not growing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Stainless steel coils wait to be pressed into sheets in Montreal. Deloitte’s chief…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,45,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-394663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}