PSA: Aggregate economic metrics are not uniform. This includes GDP, inflation, trade balance, etc.
In recent years, Canadian GDP went up mainly because real estate spiked because population growth spiked. That's not the same as US GDP going up. Same for the way down, as immigration policies change. Some parts of the economy can swing without as much pain being felt, other parts even a small shift is brutal.
Same with inflation, housing costs might go up while food prices might go down. On the other hand, inflation has a big psychological component, so the aggregate becomes "sticky" and self-reinforcing.
Trade balance too, we may have a bigger deficit of luxury goods (like electronics, clothes, etc), but a surplus of essential goods (for utilities, agriculture, construction, manufacturing, etc).
Aggregate metrics, like averages, are more useful to keep track of when we're mindful of their compositions. These vary dramatically between countries and not interchangeable for many cases. 2 replies
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