Canada’s Growth Rate 2.4% From January to March

The economy of Canada grew at the rate of 2.4% in the first quarter of this year which is slightly slower than what was expected by the economists. According to reports sent out by Thomas Reuters, it has been forecasted by economists that the rate of growth will go up to 2.9%.

It has been reported by Statistics Canada that the economy expanded at the rate of 0.6% in actual terms in the first three months of this year. It has come to notice that as the quarter came to an end, the economy actually shrink at the rate of 0.2% in the month of March. This was followed by 0.1% contraction that was there in the month of February.

In the month of January, the economy had grown at the rate of 0.5%. Avery Shenfeld was speaking at CIBC World markets and mentioned that “A quarter that was going just fine ended with a slight hiccup. The economy of Canada received all the momentum in the first month only. It is an indication of the slowdown that we might expect in the coming time.”

Exports have played an important role in the GDP growth of the country, something which has increased by 1.7%. This is followed by a 0.4% decrease in the exports in the previous quarter, as has been reported by Statistics Canada. These figures are important to judge the employment generation in the country and will ultimately affect the immigration visa services.

The slowdown has been seen in business investment sector as well and there was a decrease of around 3.7% in the non-residential structures. This means that the downward trend has continued in the past five quarters. An important factor in the decline is because of the slowdown in investment in the gas and oil sector. It is worth noting as to what effect it will have on immigrationvisa services.

Even before it has been confirmed that the first quarter has slowed down at the end, economists had changed their outlook for the next quarter as well. One of the main reasons that were given was that of the wildfire that happened at Fort McMurray because of which energy sector of this area was disrupted.