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EDMONTON — Canada will take more than two years to adjust fully to the drop in oil prices, a senior Bank of Canada official said on Wednesday, signaling no quick end to a shock that has roiled the economy.

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Deputy Governor Lynn Patterson said a simulation run by the bank suggested it would be several years before the economy found a new balance. The plunge in crude prices pushed the oil-exporting nation into a mild recession last year, prompting policymakers to cut interest rates twice, although the bank is expected to remain on hold next month.

“Our best guess is that the full adjustment will take longer than two years, our normal forecast horizon,” Patterson said in a speech in Alberta, home to Canada’s struggling oil sands.

The simulation run by the bank suggests that the share of the commodity sector in the economy will decline, and could account for about 40 per cent of exports by 2020, compared with about 50 per cent in 2014, Patterson said. The sector’s share of business investment could similarly decline.