‘A hard stop’ — Just how bad will this COVID-19 recession be for Canada? | CBC News
At a minimum, the Conference Board of Canada is assuming that most industries across the country will be essentially shut down for at least six weeks.
Under a more pessimistic scenario, the board sees lockdowns and quarantines stretching for up to six months, until August. If that happens, the GDP hit would be massive — an annualized contraction rate of 9.6 per cent in the second quarter, which is worse than what we saw in the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009. The economy shrank at an annual pace of 8.7 per cent at its worst stage, in early 2009 before rebounding starting in the spring.