Canadian economic growth ‘gangbusters’ in second quarter thanks to consumers
OTTAWA — The confident consumer helped drive across-the-board economic growth in the second quarter, giving the country its best start to a calendar year since 2002.
Growth expanded at an annual pace of 4.5 per cent, which followed an impressive jolt of 3.7 per cent growth in the previous quarter.
The surprisingly strong results raise the question — how long can Canada keep this up?
Canadians, encouraged by cheap credit, a still-strong job market and better wages, have been a big part of the momentum because they’ve continued to open their wallets, Statistics Canada said Thursday.