Canada entered a technical recession after headline GDP shrank modestly in Q1, driven by weak business and government spending, Statistics Canada said on Friday. Real GDP fell an annualized 0.1% in Q1; Q4 was revised to a 1.0% annualized contraction from a prior -0.6% estimate. The Q1 decline surprised forecasters: a Bloomberg survey had penciled in a 1.5% annualized gain, broadly matching Bank of Canada projections. Canada last posted consecutive quarterly declines in 2020 during the pandemic;

Canada entered a technical recession after headline GDP shrank modestly in Q1, driven by weak business and government spending, Statistics Canada said on Friday. Real GDP fell an annualized 0.1% in Q1; Q4 was revised to a 1.0% annualized contraction from a prior -0.6% estimate. The Q1 decline surprised forecasters: a Bloomberg survey had penciled in a 1.5% annualized gain, broadly matching Bank of Canada projections. Canada last posted consecutive quarterly declines in 2020 during the pandemic; the previous occurrence was in 2015 amid low oil prices.