Despite signs that the provincial economy is turning a corner, ATB Financial’s most recent Business Beat survey suggests a full economic recovery will still take time.

Optimism about the economy is up compared to last year but the latest round of surveying shows a slight decline in the number of small- and medium-sized businesses that believe Alberta’s economy will be stronger in six months. ATB’s Economy Index slipped from 58.4 in the first quarter of the year to 54.1 in the second quarter. (A value more than 50 means more business owners are more optimistic than not.)

After reaching the highest level in eight quarters, the ATB Business Index also fell slightly. The latest reading of ATB’s Business Index was 64.6, down by 1.5 points from the first quarter. Despite the moderate dips in the two indices, both economic and business optimism levels are above 50 and show that economic sentiment in the province is far better than last year.

Businesses have had some reason to be optimistic. At the time of the survey in mid-May, there were real improvements to the labour market, there were overall improvements to business conditions in the province and the price of oil was hovering around $50 a barrel.

Stay tuned to atb.com over the next couple of weeks to see more information from the latest version of the Business Beat survey. This next issue is about the adoption of technology and innovation by small -and medium-sized businesses.