(Reuters) – Canada is concerned about the challenges facing global supply chains and is watching the country’s ports very closely, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said on Thursday.
Freeland, speaking to reporters in Washington after meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, said she was broadly optimistic about the strength of Canada’s economic recovery from COVID-19.
The rebound in demand for goods as restrictions are lifted has exposed supply chain shortages, with firms scrambling for workers, ships and even fuel to power factories, threatening the fledgling bounce back.
“The issue of both supply chain congestion and supply chain shortages, was discussed … it’s definitely a concern on the minds of finance ministers around the world,” Freeland said.
“We are definitely mindful of the supply chain issues in the Canadian economy. We are monitoring the supply chain and Canadian ports, very, very closely.”
Freeland said the process of restarting the economy after the shutdowns was inevitably going to be uneven.
(Reporting by David Ljunggren and Julie Gordon; Editing by Chris Reese and Aurora Ellis)
