Overview of Quebec’s Manufacturing Regions for 2020–2021

Due to the pandemic, economic growth for Quebec’s manufacturing regions will be negative in 2020, as it will be for the province as a whole (graph 1). Quebec will outperform the economies of all the manufacturing regions with the exception of Chaudière-Appalaches. The manufacturing sector remains heavily impacted by the current public health and economic crisis, and the production capacity of many businesses is still limited. They continue to face difficulties replenishing inventories to meet demand due to supply chain disruptions during the lockdown and remaining restrictions on international trade. It’s also worth noting that many exporting companies will likely have to wait until late 2021 to return to pre-pandemic levels. The speed of next year’s expected recovery will depend on the driving industries of each manufacturing region. However, the recovery could take longer if the second wave of the pandemic became bad enough to require a new general lockdown, which would mean downgrading our outlooks. This represents the most significant risk at the present time in the forecast scenario.