Quebec’s restrictive policies on COVID-19 are being criticized in a special report on economics and strategy issued by the National Bank of Canada on Jan. 17. “We’ve been receiving calls from more and more foreign institutional clients wondering ‘What’s going in Quebec?’” writes the bank’s chief economist and strategist Stéfane Marion. Marion says the question is relevant as foreign investors hold a third of the province’s debt, compared to 20 percent in Ontario. The economist says that despite Quebec having comparable figures in terms of COVID-19 cases and ICU hospitalization as other industrial countries, it has enacted much stricter public health measures than the rest of North America. As a result of these restrictions, the National Bank has had to reduce its outlook for Quebec’s real GDP growth in 2022 by more than half a percentage point. “So what is prompting our authorities to such stringency?” asks Marion. “An inadequate vaccination …
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