Canada’s economy began 2019 with its largest output gain in eight months, an unexpected result that will ease worries the expansion has come to a halt.
The numbers paint a much less bleak picture for an economy that came to a near halt at the end of last year, with January GDP now putting growth on pace for a stronger first quarter than most economists are anticipating. The gains should also bolster confidence among officials at the Bank of Canada that growth will bounce back.
Financial markets are betting the central bank is likely to cut interest rates because of the weak run of data until now. Canada’s economy stalled in the fourth quarter, including contractions of 0.1 per cent in each of the final two months of 2018. Economists had been forecasting equally sluggish growth this quarter.