Alberta Finance Minister Joe Ceci. Image: Flickr/Premer of Alberta Alberta slashed its economic growth forecast for this year and next as plunging prices for local crude threaten to eat into corporate profits and reduce investments. Gross domestic product will increase 2 percent in 2019, the province said Friday in its second-quarter fiscal update. That’s down from an original projection of 2.5 percent in the March budget. The growth forecast for this year was cut to 2.5 percent from 2.7 percent. The dimmer outlook reflects the fallout from a crisis in Alberta’s oil patch, sparked by a lack of pipeline space that has sent Canadian heavy-crude prices to record lows and prompted companies to shut in production. The situation, costing the nation’s economy C$80 million ($60 million) a day, has spurred the province to seek to buy rail cars to help move more crude to market and appeal to the federal government for help. “This is a crisis,” Alberta Finance Minister Joe Ceci said in a statement from Edmonton. “Albertans and working Canadians cannot afford to leave C$80 million on the table every day. It doesn’t make sense and, if the differential is not addressed, our entire country could be […]
