After almost a year of COVID-19, it looks like the economy is beginning to recover in Saskatoon and area.
That’s according to SREDA’s Saskatoon Economic Recovery Tracker that monitors indicators and compares them to pre-pandemic levels.
SREDA CEO, Alex Fallon, says the tracker indicated in December that the economy was at 48.2 per cent of what it was before the province went into lockdown.
The most recent indicator is that Saskatoon’s economy is now at 58.5 per cent.
Fallon considers this good news because it shows some progress and being over the half way point is a milestone.
Fallon understands that significant challenges remain, especially in the hardest hit areas like tourism.
He expects there will be a rise in the economy which will correlate to an increase in the COVID-19 vaccination rate.
The Conference Board of Canada says retail sales, manufacturing shipments and residential investment have recovered to pre-pandemic levels, but Fallon adds that within these sectors, small businesses bear the brunt of the impact so the effect hasn’t been equal throughout these industries.