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OTTAWA — The global economy is growing at a stubbornly weak pace and governments should be deploying fiscal tools alongside monetary policy to stoke growth, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said in its latest outlook Thursday.

The OECD downgraded its 2016 global growth outlook to three per cent from 3.3 per cent, matching last year’s underwhelming growth rate. Canada received one of the sharpest downgrades among developed countries, with growth predicted to average only 1.4 per cent this year, compared with a forecast of two per cent made in November.

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Global growth is trending at its weakest pace in five years, a disappointing figure for economies now seven years removed from the 2009 recession.



“The downgrade in forecasts is widespread, reflecting a broad range of disappointing incoming data for the fourth quarter of 2015 and the recent weakness and volatility in global financial markets,” the OECD said in its outlook. “These trends have been apparent in both advanced and emerging economies.”