Beaulieu, president of the Institute of Trend Research, said he plans on tackling regional issues such as the local housing market, inflation and employment in the area.
“We’ll do what we’ve done in the past, which is to try and drill down into the region so folks can take all this macro stuff and make it pertinent to them,” he said, adding that he’ll also touch on the economic impact of what’s happening outside of the U.S., in places like Europe and China.
Unlike his previous appearances, Beaulieu said he won’t focus on the transition from a recession to recovery because, as he put it, “we have been in recovery and will continue in recovery.”
“If folks are waiting for something much better than this (recovery) they’re going to be disappointed,” said Beaulieu. “2005, 2006 was a great time to be alive, but you can’t be 18 forever. The new reality is this is the new economy; this is the new normal.”
Beaulieu said his message this year to businesses and executives has been pretty straight forward – don’t wait.
“You’re going to be spending some money to make this (economy) work for you to grow your business or you’re going to die,” he said. “Your competitors will out position you; your competitors will outsell you; your competitors will gain market share at your expense if you don’t start getting aggressive and realize this is it, this is the environment.”
Most of the excitement in 2012, Beaulieu said, is going to involve the European economy. However, he said most of it should not be seen as much of a surprise. Despite the turmoil, Beaulieu said the European economy ended up on target with his forecast – less than a one percent deviation from what was put in place in January 2011.
“We got to the end of the year and it ended up right where we thought it would be,” he said.
China, Beaulieu explained, has witnessed a slowdown of late due to a housing bubble sparked by inflated prices and over-speculation (sound familiar?). But, he said, the Chinese are making strides to overcome it.
“They’ve already deflated prices. The last time I looked it, somewhere around 40 percent in price deflation had occurred. And two days ago, Beijing announced they are reducing cash reserve requirements at banks, which simply means they are putting more credit out there for people again,” he said.
As any economic forecast goes, Beaulieu said there are uncertainties, promising to go into greater detail about what those are during his upcoming event.
“We’ll talk about them and hopefully build confidence into the forecast as we go forward,” he said.
The Vancouver Business Journal is co-sponsoring next month’s speaking event, in partnership with the Greater Vancouver Chamber of Commerce. The event will be held at the Vancouver Hilton from 7 to 10:30 a.m. Register here.
