The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has upgraded its view of Canada’s economic growth this year by the most among advanced economies.
In its latest World Economic Outlook, the IMF said it expects the Canadian economy to grow 5% over the course of 2021, 1.4 percentage points higher than its previous forecast. The IMF’s outlook is more optimistic than the Bank of Canada’s expectation of 4% economic growth this year.
Overall, the IMF is expecting global economic output will rebound 6% in 2021, and a further 4.4% in 2022. It did warn that significant uncertainties remain as new COVID-19 variants spread, and vaccines are rolled out unevenly around the world.
While the overall global economic outlook is improving, it will take time for output to return to pre-pandemic levels, said the IMF. Among advanced economies, only the United States is projected to exceed pre-pandemic expectations for overall output in 2022.
While the Canadian economy has expanded for nine straight months through January, output remains 3% below pre-pandemic levels.
