Quote:
Originally Posted by GGG
On the other hand relative GDP changes to other nations is indicative of an issue. I think the Australia comparison is a good one to follow as you have resources based moderate sized economies. Also the comparison to where we sit in OCED is also a reasonable methodology. So I agree GDP is an imperfect measure but the trends in GDP are a negative indicator for Canada.
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Not necessarily, unless you account for demographics. Australia is a younger country than Canada, with a very large 25-45 age group relative to the rest of its population. Canada, on the other hand, is older and has a pretty large (and growing) 65+ demographic that provides little productive capacity. An aging population will tend to depress GDP per capita as a smaller and smaller share of the population is of working age. That's the main reason why we have such high immigration targets.
If you account for that difference by looking at GDP per worker, then almost all of the discrepancy in GDP per capita growth between the two countries disappears. And at the same time, Canada's median real wage growth has been about 40% higher than Australia's has been in that time period.