I’d like to thank the Ottawa Board of Trade for the invitation. It is news to no one that we are living in unsettled times. The world economy continues to be buffeted by trade conflict, and relations between the United States and China are on a roller coaster. This enduring uncertainty has already done some damage. Global growth has suffered.
They noted that to assess the state of the real economy it is not sufficient to know the pace of GDP growth; one also needs to know how this rate of growth relates to potential growth and hence the extent to which spare productive capacity is rising or falling.