Canada’s economy saw no growth in the first quarter of 2026 following a decline in the final quarter of 2025, according to Statistics Canada data released on May 29.
When annualized, the data points to GDP contraction in two consecutive quarters, which meets the technical definition of a recession. Before the data was released, economists had largely expected growth of 1.5 percent of GDP on an annualized basis in the first quarter of 2026.
On a quarterly basis, Canada narrowly escapes the technical definition of a recession, given GDP fell 0.2 percent in the last quarter of 2025, and came in flat in the first quarter of 2026….