Ontario is not in recession and Canada’s most populous province expects to continue as the country’s economic engine.

That was the message from provincial Finance Minister Charles Sousa’s office Tuesday in the wake of Statistics Canada data showing the nation’s economy was in recession for the first half of the year.

While Canada’s real gross domestic product declined 0.5 per cent between April and June and 0.8 per cent from January to March — thanks mostly to low oil prices dragging down Alberta — the situation is better in Ontario.

“Ontario’s economy is leading the country and private-sector forecasters expect it to continue to do so,” said Kelsey Ingram, Sousa’s press secretary.

Ingram said Queen’s Park appreciates that the country “is being impacted by the exceedingly fragile global economic climate and we recognize the impact this situation is having on the national economy and our provincial counterparts.”

But the plunging energy prices so problematic for Alberta and Saskatchewan have a different impact in Ontario.

The drop in the value of the Canadian dollar against the surging U.S. greenback is a boon for a province that exports 79.3 per cent of its products stateside.

“In Ontario, key indicators of economic activity in the second quarter have been stronger than the national average and point to a resumption of growth in the second quarter,” said Ingram.

“Job numbers are up and our unemployment rate is down to 6.4 per cent which is the lowest unemployment rate since September 2008. In fact, since the 2008 recession, Ontario has created more than 568,000 net new jobs.” she said, noting improving prospects south of the border are also good news.

“Looking forward, we expect the strong U.S. economy to support further growth in Ontario.”

Indeed, in July’s provincial economic forecast, TD Economics said Ontario’s economy is “poised to advance by an average of 2.3 per cent in 2015-16.”

“The projected near-term depreciation in the loonie and a healthier U.S. economy will benefit Ontario producers. Even then, renewed strength will be constrained by ongoing competitiveness challenges in the auto industry where we expect production to fall 4 per cent in 2015 and 1.8 per cent in 2016,” TD cautioned.