Being the National Capital of a G8 country, Ottawa commands high domestic and global attention. As a consequence, in the past decade Ottawa has increased in size, population, wealth and importance. In fact, the region grew at an unprecedented rate since the emergence of its technology sector. Even as the world reeled under the effects of the global recession in 2008, the regional economy faired impressively well and managed to remain relatively stable. Nevertheless, it slowed down in the year 2009 primarly as a result of the ripple effect of the continuing global recessionary tendencies. However, the Conference Board of Canada has predicted a bright future for the Ottawa region.

Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
The year 2008 saw a slowdown in the growth rate, which continued its downward movement in 2009. This meant that the Gross Domestic Product growth in the Ottawa region underperformed in 2009 registering a negative growth rate of 1.2 per cent decreasing to $45.51 billion from $45.97 billion. However, the Conference Board of Canada has forecasted a consistent growth rate of over 2 per cent per year between 2011 and 2014.

Consumer Price Index (CPI)
The Consumer Price Index declined to 0.60 per cent in 2009, after a growth of 2.2 per cent in 2008. According to the Conference Board of Canada, the CPI of the Ottawa region is forecasted to improve by 3 per cent in 2011.

Additionally, the Canadian inflation rate remains relatively low compared to the United States, averaging 2.1 per cent from 2006 to April 2011.