Economy of Quebec
The economy of Quebec is diversified and post-industrial with an average potential for growth. It is highly integrated with the economies of the rest of Canada and the United States. Manufacturing and service sectors dominate the economy.
| Currency | Canadian dollar (CAD) |
|---|---|
| April 1 to March 31 | |
Trade organisations | CUSMA, OECD, |
| Statistics | |
| GDP | CAD$ 504,5B (2021) |
GDP per capita | CAD$ 52,384 (2018) |
| 6.2% (January 2023) | |
Population below poverty line | 6.4% (2020) |
| Unemployment | 6.3% (2021) |
| External | |
| Exports | C$ 223,3B (2021) goods: 75.7 % services: 24.3 % international: 61,3 % % interprovincial: 38,7 % |
Export goods | aluminium airplanes paper airplane parts copper and alloys |
Main export partners | United States (72.2%) United Kingdom (2.6 %) Germany (2.0 %) France (1.9 %) Netherlands (1.8 %) |
| Imports | C$ 234,7B (2021) goods: 75.5 % services: 24.5 % international: 66,3 % interprovincial: 33,7 % |
Import goods | petrol automobiles airplanes trucks and frames |
Main import partners | United States (31.1 %) China (8.3 %) Algeria (8.1 %) United Kingdom (7.9 %) Germany (4.0 %) Japan (4.0 %) |
| Public finances | |
| $219.0 billion CAD(2021) | |
All values, unless otherwise stated, are in US dollars. | |
The economic heart of Quebec is the Montreal metropolitan area where half of Quebecers live. This region alone accounts for 53.4% of the province's gross domestic product (GDP), followed by the Quebec City metropolitan area (11.4%), Gatineau (3.2%), Sherbrooke (2.2%), Saguenay (1.9%) and Trois-Rivières (1.8%). In total, Quebec's GDP at market prices was CAD 380.9 billion or 19.0% of Canada's GDP.
For the 2022-2023 period, Quebec's budget was C$22 billion. This budget planned to provide $8,9 billion more to the healthcare sector over 5 years. The economy of Quebec represents 20.36% of the total GDP of Canada. Like most industrialized countries, the economy of Quebec is based mainly on the services sector. Quebec's economy has traditionally been fuelled by abundant natural resources, a well-developed infrastructure, and average productivity. The provincial GDP in 2021 was C$504,5 billion, making Quebec the second largest economy in Canada.
The provincial debt-to-GDP ratio peaked at 50.7% in fiscal year 2012–2013, is now resting at 38.1 in 2022, and is projected to decline to 33.8% in 2023–2024. The credit rating of Quebec is currently Aa2 according to the Moody's agency. In June 2017, Standard & Poor's (S&P) rated Quebec as an AA− credit risk, surpassing Ontario for the first time.
Quebec's economy has undergone tremendous changes over the last decade. Firmly grounded in the knowledge economy, Quebec has one of the highest growth rate of GDP in Canada. The knowledge sector represents about 30.9% of Quebec's GDP. In 2011, Quebec experienced faster growth of its research-and-development (R&D) spending than other Canadian provinces. Quebec's spending in R&D in 2021 was equal to C$4.1B or, above the European Union average of 1.84% and will have to reaches the target of devoting 3% of GDP to research and development activities in 2013 according to the Lisbon Strategy. The percentage spent on research and technology is the highest in Canada and higher than the averages for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the G7 countries. Approximately 1.1 million Quebecers work in the field of science and technology.