The C.D. Howe Institute says it’s too soon to conclude that Canada has entered a recession, after the latest data from Statistics Canada showed the economy contracted for two consecutive quarters, meeting the common definition of a technical recession.
The institute’s Business Cycle Council, widely seen as the authority on recessions in Canada, said on June 5 that it doesn’t accept the definition of a recession as two straight quarters of declining GDP. Instead, it defines a recession as a “pronounced, persistent and pervasive decline in real economic activity.”
“It is too early to conclude that the Canadian economy is in recession,” the council said in a report on the institute’s website….