Chart of the Week: Bumpy, but strong overall - Alberta’s economic growth since 2011

When Alberta’s economy was booming from 2011-2014 as investment poured into massive oil sands projects, its pace of annual GDP growth was more than double the national average. Alberta then went through an extended period of tough times that included a deep recession in 2015-2016 triggered by a global oil price collapse, a near recession in 2019 precipitated by pipeline bottlenecks, and then COVID. After bouncing back from the pandemic, Alberta’s rate of annual growth has remained lower than the boom period, but consistently higher than the national rate.