Canada's economy should grow by half-a-percentage more in 2010 than initially predicted, according to a new survey of private sector economists released Monday.
Canada's gross domestic product will expand by 3.1% in 2010, compared to the 2.6% predicted at the time of the government's spring budget, according to the Department of Finance's latest poll of 15 economists, taken in March.
Ottawa regularly surveys private economists and uses these projections as the basis for its budget modeling.
Even at the new, faster pace, the government's GDP growth is still slower than the projection of the Bank of Canada. Earlier in April, the Canadian central bank said the national economy would expand by 3.7% in 2010.
Many economists have been hiking their GDP projections in recent months after seeing areas, such as real estate and consumer demand, performing better than anticipated.
Ottawa pointed out, however, that, while the prediction for growth in 2010 has risen, that for the period 2009 to 2014 -- an average of 2% — has not.
Canada's GDP growth of 3.1% now matches the growth predicted for the U.S. economy by the Conference Board of Canada on Monday.
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