CBC

Fri Dec 15, 6:34 am

Economic forecast suggests slowdown

A forecast for the global economy from the Bank of Nova Scotia suggests an overall slowdown for the coming year. The bank says that major American companies have stretched their credit limits as far as they can which could lead to less capital spending. It may slow their hiring practices as well. The bank also points out that some of the biggest of the corporate powers like Microsoft and General Motors have been projecting disappointing results. The forecast says that the problems will slow all economies connected to the American market, weakening trade, production and commodity prices. Analysts say that could be bad news for Canadian resource companies, which were battered by the Asian economic meltdown in 1997.

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), December 15, 2000