Trade Confidence is Up...Again!

For those whose working lives began in the past 5-7 years, ‘normal’ has been pretty gloomy. For much of that abnormally long period, a key economic ingredient – confidence – has been missing. In the middle of last year, it made a comeback. No, it’s not really roaring back, but in key OECD nations, it is back into the historically normal zone, and is rising. That’s a great relief, but is it affecting business flows? In Canada’s case, is it doing anything for exporters and their international activities?

Since 1999, EDC has conducted a semi-annual survey of trade confidence, which is the substance behind the Trade Confidence Index. The Index covers a unique period of history, including 9/11, the ‘tech wreck’, the soaring Canadian dollar, the massive, 5-year global bubble of excessive activity, the Great Recession, the hyper-stimulus that followed, and then – the long lull that we are only now beginning to emerge from.

This has been excerpted from a 19 June 2014 commentary by Peter G. Hall of Export Development Canada and is available in its entirety at:
http://www.edc.ca/EN/Knowledge-Centre/Subscriptions/Weekly-Commentary/Pages/confidence-up.aspx