While Canadians have been faced with almost unrelenting bad economic news in recent months, economic research firm Global Insight Inc. says it sees some economic indicators that look pretty encouraging.

Admittedly, Canada is in recession: the stock market is down 40% this year, house prices are down, and unemployment is rising, it notes. However, Global Insight says that, “Even in these tough times, there are a few economic statistics that we can be very thankful for and that offer hope.”

Notably, it points out that: interest rates are lower than almost ever before and they are much lower than we expected they would be; consumer inflation is low, and it is expected to go much lower in 2009; energy prices are down; and, while unemployment is on the rise and will be for another year, the rate is starting from a very low point.

Finally, Canada’s economy is doing better than many other major economies. “While Canada’s economic growth is forecast at a very uncomfortable -0.4% for 2009, we would not want to change for the -1.8%, which is the current forecast for the United States, or the -2% for the United Kingdom, Germany’s -1.3%, or even France’s -0.6%,” it notes.

“We can conclude that, yes, times are tough, and they will probably get worse before they get better,” it says. “If we look very closely, not everything is getting worse. There were a few things we were very worried about a few months ago, or a few years ago, which have turned out better than expected and/or are actually better than they were a few years ago.”

IE