recession wasn’t worrying,” says Braveen Kumar, who is currently working on building his freelance business.Amid soaring inflation and the Bank of Canada increasing interest rates more aggressively relative to past tightening cycles, concerns about a possible recession are growing.
A lacklustre stock market is adding fuel to the fire, as market declines tend to happen before a recession strikes.Kumar recently left his job in tech and even though he managed to save eight months’ worth of money for living expenses in order to make the career change, he is budgeting much more diligently now since he does not have a regular salary.
Interest rates must still rise despite high debt, house prices: Bank of Canada Camille Horrocks-Denis is a documentary media student, and while she is supported by provincial loans and grants, works two jobs and lives with her partner, the high cost of living in Toronto is making her day-to-day more challenging as she considers the potential impact a recession might have on someone like her.“One thing for sure is that being in the arts industry, there is no guaranteed job (in my field) waiting for me after graduation, therefore a recession could potentially affect me deeply,” she says.CIBC economist Katherine Judge is not sounding the alarm quite yet on a recession, but says if Canada does fall into one, it could be in late 2022 or in the first half of 2023.
She doesn’t anticipate it being as bad as 2008, however.“The 2008 recession was atypically deep, and if we were to experience a recession this time, odds are it wouldn’t be as severe,” she says.