Tracking Canada’s economic recovery from COVID-19

In these challenging times, Export Development Canada (EDC) is keeping a close eye on how the pandemic is affecting Canadian companies and the global economy. To help you monitor the overall progress on the road to recovery, our monthly Canadian Economic Recovery Tracker (CERT) offers timely insights from a variety of indicators—available several weeks before official statistics are released. For more information on the CERT methodology, click here.

Canada’s economy continues to adjust to the unprecedented contraction in global economic activity suffered in early 2020 due to the pandemic. After a sharp, but partial economic recovery during the first reopening phase, the Canadian economy faced additional setbacks due to the second wave of COVID-19 cases. The recovery showed signs of momentum early in 2021, and many provinces eased restrictions, before suffering a third wave of cases led by COVID-19 variants. Since our last release in July, new COVID-19 cases dropped and began to rise again as the health situation worsens, despite higher vaccination rates. Our latest CERT reading, as of Sept. 17 is now hovering around pre-pandemic levels.