Plastics products lead the way in GDP growth

Plastics products continue to account for one of the strongest segments of Canada’s manufacturing sector — growing at almost triple the rate of the economy as a whole over the past five years, Industry Canada’s John Margeson reports.

The manufacturing sector saw its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) drop 0.24 per cent last year, and move ahead at an average annual rate of 3.45 per cent between 1998 and 2003. Plastics products, meanwhile, grew 2.75 per cent last year, but averaged 9.94 per cent growth for each year between 1998 and 2003.

The GDP linked to the overall economy inched forward 2.07 per cent between 2002 and 2003, compared to an average annual growth of 3.59 per cent over the past five years.

The GDP linked to synthetic resins and fibres held relatively flat from 2002 to 2003, at an increase of 0.32 per cent. Its average annual change is measured at 2.52 per cent over the past five years.

It’s an accurate economic indicator, Margeson adds, releasing the numbers.

“GDP is a type of ‘value-added’ calculation that adds an industry’s outputs and subtracts its inputs to measure its incremental contribution to the economy,” he explains. “With shipment data, by comparison, there is often double-counting. The value of a pellet of polyethylene, for example, will be counted in both the synthetic resin industry and the plastics processing industry.”

While 12 out of 21 tracked industry groups declined from 2002 to 2003, growth in the plastics and rubber sector ranked fifth.