The first forecast for negative economic growth in 2010

According to the Conference Board of Canada’s latest economic projections for the provinces,  province’s that are down this year are going up next year.

All except one.

Newfoundland and Labrador’s economy is forecast to shrink 3.6% this year but the Board has now said that the local economy will also contract another half percent in 2010.  The Board doesn’t anticipate a return to growth in Newfoundland and Labrador until 2011.

It put Newfoundland and Labrador in a category of its own. That province is expected to post the biggest GDP decline this year at 3.6% and is the only provincial economy forecast by the Conference Board to contract (by 0.5%) in 2010. The board said the province was hurt by declines in forestry, mining and manufacturing this year, and offshore oil drilling is expected to remain at depressed levels next year.

Incidentally, VOCM missed the importance of that entirely.

The forecast contraction for Newfoundland and Labrador this year is the largest in the country for 2009, incidentally.

Now all of that make as a complete mockery of the line coming from local politicians.  After the collapse last year, the Premier talked about the province being protected by an economic bubble last year.  That turned out to be a version of the St. John’s Harbour bubble apparently.

And just within the past couple of weeks, environment minister Charlene Johnson was out telling a local Rotary Club audience about how the province was well positioned to weather the economic storm due to the wonderful things done by the crowd she’s a part of.

Well that’s another issue.

There’s no question however, the economic bubble was entirely fictitious.

The Conference Board projection is in line with the actual oil revenue data for the first half of 2009 that Bond Papers brought you exclusively earlier this week. it shows royalties are down 57% for the same period in 2008 and that they are 15% below the government’s own forecast thus far.

Oil production is also down.  In the first six months of fiscal 2009, production is  running about 29% below the same period in 2008.

Add to that personal income tax. Last year, personal income tax (PIT) generated $899,460, 000 in government revenue.  That works out to $4, 037 for each of the 220, 300 people working in the province, full-time and part-time.  You can find those figures using information in the provincial government’s own financial documents tabled with the budget last spring.

Government lowballed the number for its 2009 budget, projecting PIT at $786 million.  That’s despite expected growth in income  - yes, they forecast more income going around - and a decline in employment of only 2,000.  That $786 million is about $100 million below what the government’s own numbers would work out to be, incidentally.  That’s why the ones actually published in the Estimates are said to be low-balled.

Job losses are currently running higher than forecast.  In October it was 5,400 for the same month in 2008.  Now word publicly on wages but working with the provincial government’s figures and the actual performance you would bring personal income tax in at around $870 million.  (4037 X 215,000)  Now that’s a rough estimate.

Even if PIT went to the same number as last year by some quirk, it still wouldn’t offset the forecast decline in oil revenues and the drop that came in mining and the forestry sector.

The government is on track to get the budget they forecast.  There won’t be any surprises, like discovering that despite all the posturing and puffing about being a have province, the government actually opted to switch formulas and collect Equalization in 2008.  They did that, incidentally, five months after Danny Williams made his great “have province” speech at the November Tory fundraiser. It was a spectacular poll goose but it was also a fraud since the provincial government knew the numbers and cabinet knew that it would not make its Equalization election until the following March.  There is more to being a have province than a political speech, a poll goose and a rip-off video.

But that, too is another issue.

There are serious issues to be faced in the months ahead.  The people of Newfoundland and Labrador are only just now starting to see the signs.

-srbp-

No Muskrat Falls in BMO forecast

Curiously, BMO’s latest economic forecast for the province doesn’t include any reference to Muskrat Falls.

The bank’s economists forecast overall economic growth in the province of 3.,9% in 2011 driven by provincial government infrastructure spending totalling $5.0 billion “over the next several years.  BMO says that the province’s capital spending hit 3% of the province’s gross domestic product in 2010.

BMO forecasts continued strong capital spending over the next three years.  While the bank mentions Hebron, Hibernia South and Long Harbour, there’s no reference to Muskrat Falls. That stands out like the proverbial sore thumb since the forecast is up-to-date enough to note the change in Conservative leadership late last year. it’s also odd because the forecast of capital spending comes entirely from the provincial government’s figures.

- srbp -

Related:  Labour force indicators raise questions about economic health and competitiveness

A grain of salt #nlpoli

Around this time of year the country’s major banks issue their economic assessments of the current year and their forecasts of the coming one.

Royal Bank issued the most recent one.  Not surprisingly, the bank’s economists are forecasting that the provinces that are most heavily dependent on natural resources will do quite well.  Saskatchewan and Alberta will lead the country in economic growth, with Newfoundland and Labrador in fourth place.

RBC’s forecast for 2012 and 2013 has Newfoundland and Labrador in the same relative position.  Natural resource prices and capital construction are driving things.  Over the next couple of years, new mineral developments will offset declines in oil production, according to RBC.  While their reasons may be slightly different, BMO and Scotiabank’s forecasts are all generally similar to RBC’s view.

There’s nothing surprising about any of that.  Newfoundland and Labrador has enjoyed phenomenal economic growth for most of the last 15 years.  In 2002, for example, the provincial gross domestic product grew 8.2% and in 1998 and 1999, the province led the country in economic growth for two years in a row.

There’s also nothing about the current economic growth that has anything to do with the party currently in power either. Some people would like you to believe otherwise.  A great many people in the province believe otherwise.  But they are wrong.

What you really need to do when looking at these economic projections is go beyond the short-term and the superficial.

Like oil prices.  Current thinking is that oil should be $100 a barrel on average.  In 2011, oil prices operated within a pretty narrow band, so if things stay like that, the world should be fine.

But…

The biggest, and more bullish, tail risk is of heightened turmoil in the Middle East and north Africa and, increasingly, in Russia, the world’s second-largest oil producer. An attack by Israel on Iran, for example, could push oil prices briefly towards $250 a barrel, according to some estimates.

Now with production in this province forecast to drop by 20-odd% from 2011, that might get a few people really excited.  Russia could be Kathy Dunderdale’s best friend, someone quipped.  Oil at $250 a barrel for any length of time would deliver a pretty sweet financial reward into the provincial treasury.  Some people might even use it as an “I told ya” moment to justify Muskrat Falls.

Just consider the cost of living with oil at around $100 a barrel, as it is now.  Look at the cost of living in all sorts of places, including Labrador West where housing prices are already at crisis levels for a great many families.

Now think of what it would be like with prices driven up by the costs of shipping just about all major consumer goods into the province.

Not pretty, eh?

And for those people who imagine the Americans desperate for cheap hydroelectricity at that point, well, the picture is even less rosy for them.

ExxonMobil produced an interesting energy forecast recently that looks at what the energy world might look like out to about 2040. Electricity demand will grow globally.  But in the United States, expect to see more electricity produced by natural gas.  There’s plenty of it and new natural gas plants are much more efficient at producing electricity than existing methods.

As for price, well, take a gander at this forecast of the cost of producing electricity in 2030:

Electricity produced from natural gas will be less than half the cost of Muskrat Falls electricity.

Forget about those export sales, gang.

But just imagine carrying the huge debt from Muskrat Falls, paying the electricity prices in this province because the provincial government forced you to pay for it and trying to cope with all the other increased costs coming because oil is more than double what it is today.

You really need to take all this talk of wonder and glory with just a grain of salt.  Things are good these days, better than they have ever been.  But if we make mistakes today, if we don’t look at the big picture, we can be paying for them tomorrow.

Big time.

- srbp -

Recession ahead?

The Newfoundland and Labrador economy may slip into recession over the next 12 months, if some current projections hold true.

Forecasts to date had the Newfoundland and Labrador economy flat-lining over the next two years or experiencing extremely modest growth of less than 2%.  The provincial government's own economic analysis division forecast last April that economic growth in the province during 2008 would be 0.8%.

The division also forecast gross domestic product in the province would increase by 3.4% in 2008 and decline by over 11% in 2009, with a further 4.4% decline in 2010. In "chained" 2002 dollars, GDP is forecast to decline 1.8% in 2008 and 1.9% in 2009.

All of that - in a forecast dated last November - included an assumption that the American economy would "grow by 2.2% in 2007." As well, "growth is expected to average 3.0% per year over the remainder of the forecast period," which ends in 2010.

That might not be an accurate picture, as it turns out.

Goldman Sachs is assessing the American economy is already likely falling into recession.  According to the Globe and mail, Merrill Lynch is now forecasting that the "Canadian economy is poised for a sharp slowdown as U.S. demand weakens...". The recession is forecast to last from two to three quarters (six to nine months) and will be mild by historical standards. Growth is forecast by Goldman Sachs at 0.8% over the year.

In Canada forecasters are already adjusting their projections for Canada in 2008, with growth in one worst case scenario hitting on 1.4% nationally compared with earlier forecasts of 2.4% or more.

A recession in the United States - even if relatively mild by some standards could have a significant impact on Newfoundland and Labrador.  The United States is the province's largest foreign trading partner, receiving 52% of the province's exports in 2005. 

Given that experts are revising downward their forecasts for overall Canadian and American economic performance over the  next 12 months, it is reasonable to conclude that the provincial economy will perform more poorly than earlier predicted.

-srbp-

15 ideas (and more) – Setting the Table

Our economic vision for Newfoundland and Labrador is that of an enterprising, educated, distinctive and prosperous people working together to create a competitive economy based on innovation, creativity, productivity and quality.

Strategic Economic Plan, 1992

Our social vision for Newfoundland and Labrador is of a sharing society which balances its economic and social interests, cares for its disadvantaged, nurtures its human and physical environment, celebrates its quality of life and traditional values of individual respect and community responsibility and provides opportunities for personal and collective achievement.

Strategic Social Plan Consultation Paper, 1995

 

Within a mere two decades, Newfoundland and Labrador transformed almost two centuries of economic backwardness into unprecedented growth.

And yet, as we enter the second decade of the 21st century, a number of factors, some identified in the early 1990s, threaten to rob Newfoundlanders and Labradorians of the bright future they worked to achieve through careful planning, steady work, and a steely determination to endure.

Public sector debt remains at record levels.  Rather than reduce debt, the current Conservative administration plans to increase the debt burden still further by building an economically unsound megaproject.  What’s more, the most recent economic forecast predicts that the current administration’s policies could triple the debt within a decade.  That is on top of the burden from the  Muskrat Falls megaproject.

Changes in the province’s population, forecast in the early 1990s, have started to create pressure for new government spending and more government spending.  Just paying the interest on the growing debt will rob money that could be helping to pay for those new services.

The highly competitive global economy that has emerged in the past 20 years, coupled with fall-out from the recent recession, will demand even greater inventiveness if businesses in Newfoundland and Labrador will meet the challenges these changes present. 

Yet, over the past decade government policy has fostered greater social and business dependence on government hand-outs.  The result is a fragile economy that will grow less robust and more susceptible to set-backs.

The answer to these challenges can be found in the principles that lay at the heart of the 1992 Strategic Economic Plan: 

• We must foster a change in people.  We must renew genuine pride, self-reliance and entrepreneurship. We must once more become outward-looking, enterprising, educated and innovative. 
• We must change government.   Our people do not need saviours or demigods.  They can run their own affairs.  We must introduce fundamental democratic reforms.  Decisions about education, health and economic development must be made closer to the people directly affected by them. The role of government is to create an environment in which the private sector can develop economically and environmentally sustainable  businesses.
• We must change relationships. We must replace the chaotic, secretive and highly centralised government of the past decade, with mature, professional and open government based on sound long-term planning and a genuine understanding of the province’s long-term interests.  Beyond that, we must forge new relationships among governments, business, labour, academia and community groups of the sort envisioned two decades ago. We must build a strong relationship between the federal and provincial governments in order to deliver government services as efficiently and effectively as possible while ensuring that the people who pay for those services can hold the right government to account for what they do.

The ideas that will follow in posts over the coming days and weeks are nothing more than the starting point for discussion.

Only through vigorous, free-wheeling public debate can we build a mutual understanding among all the people of the province on both the necessity of change and of the specific changes themselves.

Change is not a luxury.

Change is not merely possible.

Change is essential.

- srbp -

Next:  Building the Fishery of the Future

If it looks too good to be true…

While gross domestic product in Newfoundland and Labrador is now forecast by the provincial finance department to shrink by 8.5%, finance minister Tom Marshall today forecast he expected to receive $520 million more than budgeted last year in oil royalties.

That’s pretty much typical of the incongruity between what the  “mid-year” financial update said about the economy and Marshall’s prediction of higher than expected revenues.

Here’s a summary of the 2009 economic performance to date in Newfoundland and Labrador, as presented by the finance department:

• Real gross domestic product is now expected to decline by 8.5% compared to 2008.  That’s worse than the 7.7% drop forecast last spring.
• Oil production in the first nine months of calendar 2009 is down 20.6% compared to the same period in 2008.
• Despite that, the revised budget projection is for an increase in oil production to 101 million barrels by the end of March 2010 compared to the spring projection of 98 million barrels.
• The value of oil production is expected to decline by 45% compared to last year.  That’s on a calendar basis. 
• Government oil royalties on an accrual basis is expected to be $1.813 billion, an increase of $520 million over the forecast in Budget 2009.
• The value of mineral shipments is expected to be down by 56% compared to 2008.
• Mining employment down by 9% compared to 2008.
• Paper production is expected to be about 47% lower than in 2008.
• Retail sales and personal income are up slightly compared to 2008.

Some quickie observations:

Apples and oranges comparisons: Most of the economic information presented in the update compares performance over a calendar year while the budget works on a fiscal year. 

To illustrate how this can have a distorting effect, consider that oil production in the first three months of calendar 2009 remained at 2008 levels of 10 and 11 million barrels per month.  However, during fiscal 2009 thus far (starting in April) , monthly production has averaged about 30% below that.  The first three months artificially inflate the average for the calendar year compared to the fiscal year.

Triple the year-to-date oil revenues and then some:  As BP reported earlier, oil royalties in the first half of fiscal 2009 (Apr to Sep) totalled about $488 million.  September’s royalties were 60% below the monthly average needed to hit the spring budget projection of $1.3 billion on an accrual basis.  Overall, royalties are running about 15% below forecast.

The fall update now projects oil royalties at $520 million higher than forecast. That’s 40% higher than forecast, despite the prediction that the value of oil production will be down by  45% and that production will be down by at least 20%.

Oil royalties are function of price and production.  Even if the royalty rate is higher in 2009 than 2008, lower production and lower average prices should produce lower royalties. 

As it is, the revised oil royalty is only 8% below 2008’s figure despite a projected 45% drop in value and a 20% drop in production.

A missing chunk:  On page nine of the budget speech from last spring, then finance minister Jerome Kennedy blamed the deficit on two things:  the impact of the stock market on pension investments (about $380 million) and lost Equalization revenue owing to changes in the formula for 2009.  That part was supposed to account for about $414 million.

There isn’t a single word about the pension plan investments and their current valuation in the update.

Hmmm.

Read the fine print:  While things might just turn out to be as rosy and wonderful as the budget forecast, it might be useful to bear these words in mind.  They come from page five of the budget update document itself:

However, at this time, there are four months remaining in the fiscal year, and there are many factors and uncertainties which may impact year end results.

Uh oh.

This wouldn’t be the first government that blew smoke to try and keep consumer wallets open through a rough patch.  There are plenty of things in this budget update that don’t add up.  Maybe they aren’t supposed to unless you realise that this update was less about the facts and more about the torque.

Whatever happens, we’ll know for sure in the spring.

-srbp-

Province forecasts economic slowdown

While you won't hear it mentioned by the Premier, cabinet ministers or the administration's other spokespeople, the provincial government's own economic analysis division is forecasting an economic slowdown in the province over the next two years.

The Economy, 2006, delivered with the budget in the spring of 2006 forecast a shrinkage in the economy in 2008 and 2009. Real gross domestic product (GDP) was forecast to shrink by 1.5% each year.

Economic Review 2006, issued at the mid-way point in the current fiscal year, revised the estimates and provided projections for both nominal and real GDP. Both categories are forecast to see either negligible growth of less than one percent or a shrinkage of 1.5%.

Both documents pointed to oil production and mining output, including Voisey's Bay, as the major drivers of the economic growth into 2007.

Voisey's Bay is a deal criticized heavily by the current administration while in opposition.

NL economy growth forecast to shrivel

TD Economics latest forecast for provincial economies has the Newfoundland and Labrador economy growing at less than one half of one percent in fiscal 2008, the lowest growth rate of any province in the country.

The quarterly forecast, issued October 16, puts real growth in gross domestic product only slightly behind that of Ontario and projects 2009 growth as being about 1.3%.

However, if the oil comments in the forecast are anything to go by, there is reason to doubt the validity of the TD Economics forecast:

After super-sized growth of 9.3% last year led by offshore oil output and exports, the Newfoundland & Labrador economy will struggle to expand, on an annual basis, in 2008. While high oil prices have helped to boost incomes (wage growth is running at 8.7% year-to-date), oil extraction is depressed due [to] the maturation of the oil fields. This will continue into 2009 and 2010. Expansions at the Hibernia and White Rose fields could help level off output, but a sustained rebound in oil production is not in the cards before 2014, which is when the Hebron project could come online.

Hebron won't start construction until about 2013/2014 - according to the project partners - and that assumes the project is sanctioned within the next 12 months.

First oil is not currently expected before 2018, assuming a very short construction.

Even at that point, Hebron will will merely replace production from some existing fields which at that point will likely have been all but exhausted.

TD Economics' forecast for Newfoundland and Labrador matches almost exactly the projections by RBC Economics. Scotiabank's 2008 forecast is higher, at 1%,  while its projection for 2009 matches the TD and RBC projection exactly.

The provincial government's budget forecast [left, Budget Speech]including a 2% shrinkage in real GDP in 2008, growth in 2009 now three times higher than that of private sector forecasters, followed by -2.8% in 2010.  The provincial government forecasts nominal GDP growth at -1.9% in 2009 and -5.0% in 2010.

The province's finance minister hasn't indicated when he will issue a mid-year economic update. He has been portraying the gloomy private sector forecasts as an improvement on the provincial government's own budget estimates.  At the same time, he hasn't reconciled his glowing revenue forecasts with the budget numbers. The contradictions remain unexplained.

While both the Premier and Memorial University economist Wade Locke have given rosy projections for the province's ability to avoid any dramatic consequences from the global crisis, it seems unlikely the Newfoundland and Labrador economy will be able to sustain Locke's pollyannaish claim that government's projections of a half billion dollar surplus will be met or exceeded.

On Wednesday, the Ontario government revised its budget estimates and is now projecting a half billion dollar shortfall for fiscal 2008.

-srbp-

Saturday night quickie: Depressing economic forecast

The Toronto Star financial columnist David Olive is giving five reasons to start worrying about the economic circumstances over the next while. 

In his maiden speech last week as governor of the Bank of Canada, Mark Carney was the bearer of bad news. The high commodity prices for everything from oil to wheat that have largely insulated Canada from the early phases of the U.S. economic slowdown are due for a fall, pulling down Canada's economic growth rate in 2008.

It's not like no one saw it coming.  It's just that it took a few people a while to notice. 

Around these parts, we've been covering the economic forecasts for months now, all of which pointed to a major slowdown in the economy.

For the record, here's the most recent outlook from TD Economics.  There are some inconsistencies in the report that aren't readily explained from the text.  For example, while there is a fairly understandable statement that Quebec and Ontario are the most vulnerable to slip into a recession, there's the odd grouping of Newfoundland and Labrador with provinces  likely to weather the economic slowdown in the United States. 

Still, TD is predicting an anaemic 1.0% real growth in provincial gross domestic product this year, tied with Quebec and only a half a percentage point above that of Ontario. Notice, by the way, that 70% of provincial exports go to the United States in the form of crude oil and refined crude products.  So much for the theory that "our" resources go to enrich central Canada.

-srbp-

Could be right. Could be wrong. #nlpoli

If you accept the provincial government’s version of things, spending a half a billion dollars more than you are collecting is a responsible decision.

That’s the headline the government’s communications people put on the news release covering the release of the fall budget update.

And if you look at either the Telegram or the CBC version of the story,  the biggest thing to notice is that the provincial government deficit is $100 million less than originally forecast.

Let’s take a deeper look and see what is there.

Whistling past the economic graveyard

The business world in a free market runs so extensively on psychology it's amazing that business schools around the world spend so much time on balance sheets, marketing and business plans.

Psychology is pretty much the reason why western government's responded to the American financial crisis with assurances that "the fundamentals" of the economy are sound.

However, in some instances, the efforts to describe the Canadian economy as somehow able to avoid any consequences of the move toward a recession south of the border became somewhat bizarre.

Take, for example, comments by Premier Danny Williams in an interview with the National Post:

"The fortunate thing about Newfoundland and Labrador and Saskatchewan in today's fragile economy is that our provinces are very, very well-positioned. We have strong economies, a lot of it based on natural resources, but we're going to weather this storm and weather it very well."

Finance minister Tom Marshall told reporters on several occasions that he doesn't see a problem find cash to build the Lower Churchill project. In other news stories, Marshall said he was concerned that lower oil prices would lower government revenues.

The Premier told VOCM listeners on Sunday night that the provincial "economy is growing very well."  That isn't accurate.  All economic forecasts - including the provincial government's own forecasts  - show the province having incredibly modest growth.  Some project the growth this year and next year will be scarcely above 1% and some have forecast growth at one half of one percent.  That is as perilously close to a decline as it can get.

At the same time, European countries are taking action to bail out where necessary and take other actions to avoid repercussions from the American downturn.  Odd is that, given that European countries are not as dependent as Canada generally or Newfoundland and Labrador specifically on the healthy American economy.

Iceland, once touted by some nationalists as a model for Newfoundland and Labrador to emulate, is in serious economic difficulty:

But in the financial world Iceland is now a hot topic of discussion for a different reason: many people suggest that it could become the “first national casualty” of the ongoing credit crunch. Until last year, Iceland’s economic track record in this decade had been phenomenal—its annual growth rate averaged close to four per cent over the past decade, and its per-capita gross national income is now higher than that of the U.S. This year, though, the country’s currency, the króna, has fallen twenty-two per cent against the euro; the economy has stagnated; and a global rating agency has put the nation’s three major banks on a credit watch. Now analysts are wondering whether the new Nordic Tiger will end up, instead, as “the Bear Stearns of the North Atlantic.”

Take, as but one example, an article from the weekend Globe and Mail.  It included this comment one one manufacturer from Newfoundland and Labrador:

Mr. [Lorne] Janes, president of Newfoundland-based Continental Marble of Canada, is already getting the cold shoulder from his customers in Florida, Maryland and California. “The reply I'm getting now is, ‘Lorne, save the phone call, don't call any more until this sorts out,'” said Mr. Janes, whose 12-employee company manufactures equipment to produce moulded stone countertops.

Janes wouldn't be alone.  A Bond Papers post from last July highlighted the extent to which the provincial economy is dependent on exports - especially energy exports - the majority of which heads to the United States. In 2005, the last year for which information is posted online at the provincial government website, 52% of international exports from Newfoundland and Labrador headed to the United States.

As the United States economy slows, the effects on Newfoundland and Labrador will be felt directly and in some instances very strongly:

1. As demand for energy products declines, exports to the United States will also likely decline.  That will reduce provincial government revenue.
2. As the price of oil declines, provincial government revenue will decline accordingly.  If crude oil averages US$87 in 2008, the provincial budget will run into deficit to the tune of about $800 million.
3. Declining commodity prices and lessened demand for minerals, forest products and fish would affect the three traditional major economic drivers in Newfoundland and Labrador.
4. The American credit crunch - and the resulting tightening of capital available for major projects - will affect virtually all the major projects projected for Newfoundland and Labrador:

• The NLRC refinery project is already in serious trouble and may well be dead for all practical purposes.
•  Hebron is not yet sanctioned.  While many believe the project is underway, it is not.  Oil prices, increased costs and tight capital may delay project sanction.
• The Lower Churchill needs $9.0 billion in capital investment, capital which is growing increasingly scarce. The project currently does not have a single power purchase agreement.  PPAs are crucial for securing long-term financing. A decline in revenues from oil and gas developments and mineral production would adversely affect the provincial government's ability to cover the costs of doubling the provincial debt in order to build the project.

The Newfoundland and Labrador economy is not immune from the effects of a serious downturn in the American economy.  As much as politicians are tempted to say something different from that for political reasons, it would be far better to provide people with an accurate picture of the provincial economy and the interrelationship between international events and local economic well being.

The shock of finding out the truth if serious consequences follow will be far greater than if politicians didn't try to whistle a happy tune as they walk towards what - for some economic projects - might well be a graveyard of ambition. That shock will have far greater consequences than what would occur from telling it like it is right now.

-srbp-

The Budget and the Economy #nlpoli

The Conference Board of Canada says the recent budget has tipped the provincial economy into a recession next year.

Finance minister Cathy Bennett says that's bollocks.

Let's see which is right.

Consistency #nlpoli

"We need to find a way to bridge us [from] where we are currently until the commodities rebound and be [sic] the significant contributor we need them to be." That’s what Premier Dwight Ball told NTV’s Mike Connors in an interview that will air in full this coming Sunday.

The words are very familiar. 

We heard them just a few short months ago.

"I have laid out a five year plan,” Conservative finance minister Ross Wiseman told the House of Assembly last spring, “to bridge the commodity revenue dip and get us back to surplus, step by responsible step." 

His own private Gene Krupa

Oram says there are a lot of companies inquiring about the potential to do business here, especially with the economy booming as it is now.

The Oram in this quotation from the Great Oracle of the Valley would be the disciple Paul Oram, minister of business.

Look at his news release pile and that of his predecessor and we might conclude he is the "minister-of-traveling-around-giving-speeches-to-anyone-who-will-listen", but that's another issue.

Now back to the quote.

The Quote.

Now presumably the G.O.V. got the quote right and Paul actually did say that the economy is booming right now. And presumably he was talking about the economy in this province, it being the economy which a business minister in this province would be concerned about.

'Cause if he did say the economy is booming,  you got to wonder if the disciples talk among themselves.

The disciple Tom delivered his budget earlier this year with predictions for economic growth across the province that were not booming. Indeed no economic oracle  - public sector or private - has been predicting a booming economy in Newfoundland and Labrador since at least the Summer of Love last year.

In fact, they aren't predicting a booming economy next year, either.

And even if all that weren't true, we need only look to last week's provincial forecast issued by RBC Economics. 

They issue these things quarterly and Bond Papers has posted more than a few from the major banks. Here's the RBC one from June 25 2007.

The forecast for Newfoundland and Labrador and it has been consisten since last year - is for the province to go from leading the country in growth to trailing badly.  They've refined their forecast of "trailing" to say that the economy will grow at the blistering pace of point two percent.

That's two tenths of one percent for those weaned on the New Math.

That is so perilously close to a recession that a breath in the wrong place would push it over.

That is so not a "boom".

Take a look at the forecast for next year.  Run your eye across the line in the pdf linked above.  Run your finger if you have to and move your lips to read the words.  That's what your humble e-scribbler had to do just to make sure he was seeing what he thought he was seeing.

Even if you have to move your finger so slowly people would think you were dead or asleep,  there's no way you'd describe the next two years in the provincial economy as a "boom".

Growth in employment?  Two per cent this year versus one half of one per cent next year.

Housing starts?  Two thousand  - that's it two friggin' thousand versus the double digits - like in the 30, 40s and 50 thousands in Ontario, Alberta, Quebec and Bee Cee.

Even in Saskatchewan they'll have double Newfoundland's starts next year.

Manitoba?  Poor Equalization-receiving Manitoba? 

New Brunswick?  The benighted crowd up the Saint John river?

Both are forecast to see more than twice as many housing starts as "booming" Newfoundland.

Retail sales?  From a growth of 8.9% in 2007 and an anticipated growth of 6% in 2008, RBC says that  there'll be just 2% growth next year.

There is no an indicator in that pile that says "boom", unless we are talking about last year.

The disciple Paul must be dancing to his own drummer, to borrow a phrase.  That's the only way to explain the comments which are, at least, somewhat inconsistent with the facts.

In fact, Paul Oram's comments are so far removed from reality that he must have his own private drum kit pounding away with skins pounded by no less a drummer than the ghost of the long-late Gene Krupa or maybe  Buddy Rich in the middle of a seizure of some kind.

If Paul has a pile of  prospective projects on his desk - at last count, the disciple Kevin was scanning 60 of the things when he went off to look after issuing permits and licenses - or even just a list of companies that are looking to come here and set up shop, perhaps Paul'd be good enough to give us a list of them.

Let us see the reason for his optimism.

He can just pass them along to the Great Oracle of the Valley and they'll get the word out.

Otherwise, we'll just consider that his latest word is as good as his description of the economy as "booming".

-srbp-

Analyst: NL economy from top to bottom of pile by '08

Laurentian Bank Securities' analysis of provincial economies forecasts that Newfoundland and Labrador will experience 3.5% real economic growth in 2007 - third largest growth in the country - but fall to last place among the provinces in 2008.

The cause: a lack of major economic development. Projects that were in development have all been cancelled. None of the others proposed are certain or are not close to development.

The analysis, extracted below for Newfoundland and Labrador, is simple and concise. It also corresponds to observations made previously by Bond Papers.

Newfoundland & Labrador to rank third in real GDP growth in 2007 …but last in 2008

In the 1990s and early 2000s, economic growth in Newfoundland & Labrador was rock-solid. Manufacturing, retail, construction and transportation sectors benefited from massive investment in the resource sector. Unfortunately, the labour-intense construction phase of massive projects ended last year, leading to adverse impacts on the economy: the province was virtually at the bottom of the barrel for growth in retail sales and housing starts. Also, the 111,000 barrels of oil extracted in 2006 was unchanged from 2005 (see chart). Problems with the gas compression system at the Hibernia oilfield and longer than-anticipated shutdowns at the Terra Nova oilfield were offset by the first full year of extraction at the White Rose oilfield. One area of strength was the mining sector, thanks to the start-up of nickel extraction at the Voisey’s Bay mining site. Altogether, we estimate the economy expanded at a respectable pace of 2.5% in 2006.

Canada’s most easterly province is likely to be the leader in the Maritimes this year, with real output growth quickening to 3.5%. It is important to notice that this acceleration is primarily coming from the oil industry, assuming activities at the Hibernia and Terra Nova oilfields resume as planned. Besides the oil sector, the rest of the economy is expected to expand slowly in 2007. In 2008, total oil production should edge down slightly given that reserves are declining at the Terra Nova oilfield. As a result, real output growth is anticipated to ease to 1.7%.

New projects to light N&L’s economic future?

The province needs to find new capital projects to feed both the labour market and the economy. One good news is that two dwells drilled has led to the discovery of an extra 190 million barrels of recoverable oil resources at the White Rose oilfield. However, this discovery won’t lead to massive investment. In fact, none of the major investment projects proposed lately are fully certain to go ahead yet. In mid-January, the Newfoundland & Labrador government declined the proposal from a group of oil companies looking to expand the Hibernia oilfield. And, back in the spring of 2006, the province and the same group of oil companies were unable to find a deal to develop the Hebron oilfield. No agreement has been reached for a number of reasons. On one hand, the provincial government is not willing to accept new oilfields development without reaping more benefits for its residents. This is understandable. Standards of living of Newfoundlanders and Labradoreans – measured by per capita real output or per capita real disposable income – is well below the national average. It is also more difficult to find a job in this province than anywhere else in the country, amid an elevated jobless rate of about 15%. It is not surprising then to find out that the labour force had stalled in the last two years and that a growing number of residents are moving to Western Canada, lure by job opportunities. On the other hand, the oil industry wants to make sure that their private investment in the province will be profitable in the long run.

The bottom line is that the economic future of the province is highly tied on both parties’ abilities to find a consensus about the potential development of resource projects. If a deal is reach, the benefits are likely to be felt beyond 2008 and not alter meaningfully our 2007-08 forecast. The potential development of the Lower Churchill hydroelectric resource is another project that could provide a fresh impetus to growth.

Shift from deficits to a respectable surplus

On the fiscal front, the provincial government has successfully turned the boat around and recorded a surplus of $199 million in the fiscal year 2005-06. This is quite an improvement compared to the $489-million deficit reported the year before. The government forecasts a $6 million surplus for fiscal 2006-07. Looking forward, the fiscal outlook could depend heavily on the outcome of a new deal on equalization payments. The latter count for about one of every six dollars in revenues in Newfoundland & Labrador. The exclusion (inclusion) of royalties revenues in the 50,000 formula will be good (bad) news for oil-rich province.

Province slated to post another deficit

Dominion Bond Rating Service said on Wednesday that Newfoundland and Labrador is expected to post a current and capital account of surplus of $291 million.

DBRS did not point out in its news release that even with that current and capital account surplus, the provincial government would need to borrow about $90 million to meet all its budgeted financial obligations.

That means that for the third year running, the provincial government is on track to post a deficit at the end of the fiscal year.

The bond rating agency also did not say that the $291 million figure is well below the $544 million surplus originally included in the budget speech.  DBRS did note that:

while the recent sharp downturn in oil prices introduces uncertainty in the fiscal outlook, the Province’s conservative oil price assumption (US$87 per barrel), the recent depreciation of the Canadian dollar and the fact that oil prices were well above budget throughout the first six months of the fiscal year should help ensure that fiscal targets can still be achieved.

Of course, the DBRS version of the surplus (restricted to capital and current account, not all financial transactions), is closer to the Bond Papers version than it would be to the opinion offered recently by Memorial University economist Wade Locke.

You may recall he predicted that the province was poised to produce a surplus "even bigger than what they had forecast."

The most curious part of the DBRS assessment is this:

Despite near-term challenges, DBRS notes that the Province has accumulated a reasonable cushion to sustain a slowdown in resource activity, including another sizeable surplus foreseen next year. Nevertheless, further improvement in Newfoundland’s ratings will likely depend on the Province’s ability to turn its newly developed resource wealth into sustainable economic growth and maintain fiscal discipline.

Accumulated a reasonable cushion?

That's a bit hard to do if every nickel has been spent over the past few years. 

It's also interesting - if that's even an adequate word - to see a forecast surplus for next year, let alone one that is "sizeable". 

See if you can find any public statements by the provincial government that they will experience a surplus next year.

You might also scratch your head at the portion of the release that indicates:

A moderate rebound [ in gross domestic product growth] is expected for 2009, driven by additional oil production and further progress being made on large capital developments, although the rapid deterioration in global economic conditions maintains uncertainty in the outlook.

Large capital developments like the second refinery at Come By Chance?  Or Hebron, which is not yet sanctioned?  This sounds a bit like the TD Economics forecast that had Hebron pumping oil in 2014, a physical impossibility if ever there was one.

Something suggests this decision by DBRS will be revisited in the next quarter, as the global economic situation shifts.

-srbp-

A Crisis. Or Not. #nlpoli

“Muskrat Falls is a project that will not impact net debt by a single dollar,” finance minister Tom Marshall said in a provincial government news release.

Unfortunately for taxpayers, they won’t pay the net debt.  That’s an accountant’s calculation of what the provincial government owes less any assets they could theoretically sell off if they had to clew up business in a hurry. 

What taxpayers will have to contend with is the total liabilities and Tom plans to make those liabilities get a whole lot bigger than they are today.  On the day that Tom Marshall predicted that his current budget will have a deficit three times what he forecast in the spring, Marshall also forecast billions more in borrowing to pay for Muskrat Falls and to pay for the government’s day-to-day expenses.

You’d think that a finance minister would understand that. 

Evidently, Tom Marshall doesn’t.

Either that or he thinks the rest of us are so stupid that they would accept his ridiculous comments as if they were true.

Continuing continuity #nlpoli

In the face of thousands of well-informed people telling Dwight Ball that the provincial government must change direction to survive, in the face of mountains of evidence that the province has been on the wrong course since 2005 or so, and lately, in the face of dire warnings from the folks who advise others about the value of the government's bonds,  Dwight Ball will continue to do what everyone knows doesn't work.

The provincial government is abandoning its economic plans, as the Telegram's James McLeod would have it last Friday.

Well, not really.

The burst bubble

Only a few short weeks ago, Premier Danny Williams was claiming that Newfoundland and Labrador would be largely immune from the global economic crisis because it was protected by some sort of magical fiscal bubble.

On Thursday, Williams acknowledged that the bubble burst:

"But going out next year [2009] and the years forward … once you get into the $60 range, then you are starting to look at deficit situations."

Of course to anyone paying attention, Williams' magical bubble claim was preposterous:

1. The provincial government knew for some time  - pre-dating the October 2003 general election - that oil production would decline this year and every year from here onward.
2. The Auditor General, among others, has warned as recently as this past spring that massive increases in public spending since 2005 built on highly volatile  - and hence unreliable - commodity prices were unsustainable in the long run.
3. In October, Dominion Bond Rating Service changed the trending on the provincial government's finances from positive to stable with a cautionary note in its detailed analysis about the heavy dependence on volatile commodity prices.
4. Historic trending, coupled with an analysis of the causes of high oil prices in recent years, strongly suggested a correction would occur.  it was only a question of when the correction would occur.

New wells at White Rose and Hibernia will not restore oil output to the peak level, no matter what the price.  Rather it merely slows the rate of decline.

Hebron is not around the corner.  Even if it is sanctioned within the next twelve months, Hebron will not come on stream until sometime after 2018.  At that point, it will merely replace White Rose, Terra Nova and Hibernia which by that time will have ceased production or be on the verge of being tapped out.  One field cannot replace three.

Of course, we are already looking at deficits on a cash basis.  Bond Papers readers have known that for months.  There have been a series of posts highlighting economic forecasts of extremely poor growth in gross domestic product, forecasts that have only forecast even further shrinkage in the economy. 

On top of that, however, several specific posts addressed in detail the factors contributing to the current and future economic problems to be faced:

• On 27 October, a post described exactly the scenario the Premier confirmed on Thursday. In fact, that post underestimated the scope of the problem by assuming a much higher premium for oil sold in American dollars and then converted to Canadian dollars on a 30% premium.  The Canadian dollar has been trading at a 20% and Brent crude is trading - as of this writing - at around US$51 to $52.  That would translate to about $700 million less in oil revenue next year than this year.  This year's budget already projected a cash deficit of $414 million on current and capital account.
• A 12 March post titled "We live in a fiscal house of cards" describes the massive spending increases over the past four.
• A 21 March post titled "What goes up must come down" described the shaky foundation on which the spending was built.
• A 25 March post titled "Hebron and old people" highlighted two fiscal challenges well known to the provincial government that would boost spending at the very time that - even without a massive economic downturn - would strain the treasury.  One - the impact of demographics - has been known for decades and is unavoidable.  The other - debt for oil projects - was discretionary.

That last one is only one major item which will add to the provincial government's financial burden.  The money needed for the 5% shares of Hebron and White Rose, and possibly for a 10% share of Hibernia South will have to be borrowed, either from lenders or from the other partners.  That debt is not optional any more and in the case of Hebron, there will be no revenue for at least a decade from that project which would make the debt self-sustaining.

Any cuts to government spending in the coming months and years will further tighten the local economy and consumer spending.  The St. John's housing market, for example, is enjoying a boom built almost entirely on public spending.  Some have credited projects like Hebron but since that project doesn't exist yet, it's hard for it to generate anything but marginal economic activity. 

Nor has the St. John's market, for example, been buoyed by remittance workers.  Some of the boom can be traced to that source but the major beneficiaries of migrant labour revenue have been in areas like Stephenville or the Great Northern Peninsula.  St. John's remains a company town and the company is the provincial government.  Hack its spending, either in salaries, programs or capital works and you hack into the local service and retail sectors. Hack into those sectors and consumer spending, another staple of government revenue, will decline as well.

Nor can the provincial government look to other construction projects to boost the economy.  NLRC's refinery is dead.  The gas facility is rumoured to be still on track but until sod is broken, it remains nothing more than speculation.  Harvest Energy's expansion at Come by Chance has been shelved. The Lower Churchill project is also more talk than reality.

More than anything, the looming provincial government financial mess should put paid to the fairy tale that the current administration practices anything looking like prudent fiscal management.  To the contrary, it has shown repeatedly that there is little if any strategic planning to its spending beyond the need to present the best face to the polls or to have spending match income.

The current administration ignored any criticisms of its approach and specifically.  It emphatically rejected constructive alternatives to its spend-happy approach such as creating an investment fund from some non-renewable resource revenues. 

A former finance minister once forecast annual deficits of a half billion dollars a year. His successor borrowed $1.0 billion to fund public sector pensions.  The Premier himself committed to meet any future deficits with increased public debt.

By all appearances, he will get his wish.

The people of Newfoundland and Labrador will get the bill.

It didn't have to be this way.

-srbp-

Dundernomics 101: the peril of Marshallism

A modest change in circumstances has made a dramatic change in the provincial government’s 2011 budget and a bigger change for 2012.

A decision by Terra Nova oil field owners to defer major renovations on the floating production platform means that the provincial government is now forecasting a surplus almost four times what they had before.

That’s right.

The extra production will boost the anticipated forecast surplus from about $59 million to $250 million. Finance minister Tom Marshall dropped that little gem on a board of trade audience a couple of weeks ago.

But wait;  there’s more.

Next year, Marshall expects a deficit of almost double the one previously forecast.

Surplus of $200 million will become a deficit of almost $500 million.

And Marshall says that will be applied to the net debt.

First of all let’s dispose of the completely slimy, disingenuous claim about applying any surplus to the net debt.

Net debt is not real debt.  It is merely a paper transaction that represents total liabilities less any assets.  A cash surplus gets counted as an asset, but as Marshall well knows it does absolutely nothing to reduce what the people of the provincial actually owe.

You bet that if Tom really posts a small surplus, he’ll be setting that money aside either to help keep the deficit in 2012 from ballooning or to fund cost over-runs on any of the mega-projects he and his mates have locked taxpayers onto.

So when the finance minister has to rely on deception you know the rest of it is bad as well.

What you have here is basically further evidence that the provincial government has put the public treasury in a dangerous state.

Take that forecast deficit for 2012 that is now set for $500 million.

That’s based on a rather optimistic forecast for oil prices.

Drop the price of oil and you can make it a much bigger number.

And we are not talking dropping oil by half its current price.  We are talking dropping it by 20%.
or even 10%.

That half a billion will quickly become $750 million or a billion.

At least.

And if the price of oil drops in 2011, there won’t be an extra $200 million to help pay for it.
As easily as the surplus grew this year, the deficit could grow next year.  Tiny changes in the local economy produce wildly different outcomes. This is not something a finance minister – as responsible finance minister – would brush off as cavalierly as Tom Marshall does. 

A responsible finance minister would adjust spending to take account of these changes in revenues.
He or she would have a policy that said he will spend such and such a percentage of non-renewable revenues on this, another amount on the other other.  So much would go into the bank and so much would pay down debt.  Annual spending would rise by a predictable rate that was something around the rate of inflation.

As a result, people could know within reason what the world would look like five years out, regardless of whether oil prices went up or down.  In the times of phenomenal prices, they would sit comfortably knowing that the public debt was vanishing – for real  - or that they had a nest egg of public spending for roads and schools guaranteed to happen regardless of anything.

That sort of predictability is the kind of environment that promotes prosperity.

That sort of sound fiscal management attracts private investment from all over the world.

That sort of behaviour – safeguarding the public trust – helps build a sound economy.

How far is Newfoundland and Labrador away from that after a decade of  Marshallism?

The big story in Newfoundland and Labrador on the last weekend in May is a racket between Marshall’s old boss and his new boss over whether the new boss should give the old boss’ latest hockey venture a half million tax dollars.

They are fighting over whether a bunch of sweaty jock-straps are worth a permanent subsidy of a half million because it is an economic investment.

And to make it worse, we are not talking about a full-on professional franchise mind you, like they are in Winnipeg.

We are talking about the farm team.

Face it.

The big news story in this province six months before the next election is a demand from a multi-millionaire to hand over a half million bucks so he can play at being a hockey mogul.

Doesn’t seem quite so impressive when you put it that way.

Does it?

But that’s a more honest and accurate version than talking about applying a surplus to the net debt.
Think about it.

- srbp -