Canada’s economy expanded in June but declined by 0.1 per cent for the second quarter as a whole, meeting the bar of what is legally defined as a recession.
The economy expanded by 0.5 per cent in June, Statistics Canada said.
But that slight monthly uptick wasn’t enough to offset the contraction in the previous two months, which means for the second quarter as a whole, the economy shrank.
The economy also shrank in the first quarter, which means Canada’s economy has met the bare minimum required before a recession is declared — two consecutive quarters of decline.
On an annualized basis, the economy shrank by 0.5 per cent in the April-to-June period, after contracting at an 0.8-per-cent annual pace in the first three months of 2015. For comparison purposes, the U.S. economy expanded by 3.7 per cent during the same period, the data agency noted.
