Canada's Alberta province may go to recession due to oil price plunge

Canada's western province of Alberta may slip into an economic recession this year because of the plunge of oil prices at the international market, the Conference Board of Canada has predicted.

The Conference Board of Canada, an independent and non-profit economic think tank, predicted in a report released Monday that the lower oil prices would affect oil-heavy economy of Alberta most prominently and may face an actual recession instead of a slowdown.

Alberta is an energy-relied province in western part of Canada and a quarter of its revenues of the provincial capital Edmonton rely on oil field. The price of oil has jumped from 105 U.S. dollars a barrel in last June to under 50 dollars in recent days.

"Going forward, the province is certain to suffer, especially on the employment front, from the drop in oil prices -- and it is likely to slip into recession," Daniel Fields, an economist at the conference board, said in a recent report.

"Engineering investment in the province nosedived by about 18 billion CAD (15 billion dollars), some 30,000 jobs in Alberta's mining sector disappeared, and housing starts fell 75 percent," Fields said.

Chief economist of the conference board, Glen Hodgson, was quoted by Canadian Broadcasting Corporation news as saying on Tuesday that even if oil prices rebound to 65 U.S. dollars a barrel, investment, profits and consumer spending in the province will still be going down. Endite