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Economists expect Statistics Canada will announce Wednesday that the country’s economy grew in the third quarter ended Sept. 30.

StatsCan releases the data at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time.

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Canada’s economy shrank by 1.6 per cent during the second quarter ended June 30, though this likely had less to do with broader economic trends than the short-term shock of the wildfires that shutdown the Fort McMurray oil sands in May.

Recessions are sometimes defined as two quarters of economic contraction, so a negative number for the third quarter would combine with that second quarter decrease to paint a gloomy picture of the Canadian economy.

That seems unlikely. Data for July showed month-over-month growth of 0.4 per cent (revised), while the monthly stat for August showed growth of 0.2 per cent.

The average estimate of 22 economists surveyed by Bloomberg forecasts StatsCan will report Q3 annualized growth of 3.38 per cent.