Although it certainly feels like it, and many people believe it, we are not in a recession yet. While a recession is defined as two successive quarters of negative GDP growth, it is essentially a period where economic growth falls significantly and unemployment rates rise.
Given the lack of a precise definition, there is not always a full agreement on whether an economy is in recession. In Canada, the government has not made any recent declarations of recessions, but the C.D. Howe Institute, a Canadian nonprofit policy research organization, tracks recessions independently.
According to the Institute, the most recent recession started in March 2020 during the height of COVID-19’s first wave. The Institute declared the recession over in August 2021. The current cost of living crisis has many Canadians wondering when the next one will be.
Runaway inflation
The general…
