VANCOUVER – The British Columbia Real Estate Association (BCREA) released its second quarter Commercial Leading Indicator (CLI) results September 2, and the numbers recorded a slight dip from earlier in the year. The BCREA CLI declined in the second quarter by 0.4 points to 120.6, the first decline in the index since the beginning of 2014. However, due to strong gains over the past four quarters, the trend underlying the CLI continues to push higher.
“Uncertainty in the global economy roiled financial and commodity markets in the second quarter,” said BCREA Economist Brendon Ogmundson. “However, BC’s nation leading economic growth should help to sustain commercial real estate activity through the end of the year.”
The CLI trend has been described as ‘smoothing’ the often noisy economic data that comprises the CLI index and is therefore considered a more reliable indicator of future growth in investment, leasing and other commercial real estate activity. Therefore, the continued rising trend in the CLI still points to positive growth, despite this quarter’s slight downturn in the index. The full CLI report can be viewed online.