Steps to Global Recovery from the “New Mediocre”

Speaking this week at the Toronto Global Forum, Minister of State (Finance) Kevin Sorenson has called for renewed efforts in strengthening the global economic recovery from what the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde calls “the new mediocre.”  

The issue, said Minister Sorenson, is renewing growth, and Canada is well positioned in meeting the Group of 20’s “two-in-five” target to raise gross domestic product by at lest 2% over current projections within five years. Canada is co-chair of the working group co-ordinating country-specific growth strategies.

Minister Sorenson shared three specific reasons for Canada’s strong position with the audience:

• Since July 2009, Canada has created nearly 1.2 million net new jobs, which will help us be amongst the strongest growing economies in the G-7 over the next two years.
• The Federal Government has reduced direct program spending—thereby shrinking the size of government—for four years in a row, and for the first time in at least 50 years.
• For the seventh year in a row, the World Economic Forum rated Canada’s banking system as the world’s soundest.

The Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report concurs with Canada’s promising prospects, stating that the global financial crisis had much less effect here than in the US, thanks in large part of our more conservative banking practices and the fact that long-term increases in housing construction and pricing were only briefly interrupted. Canadians, fortunately, are experiencing an environment of rising wealth.