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OTTAWA — The strong second-quarter performance of the Canadian economy provides a welcome reality check after a chilly start to 2014.

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Canadian companies saw their profits continue to mount in the first half of 2014, a signal they are beginning to benefit from signs of improving domestic and global economies





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Consumers still underpinning growth: Check. Exports and business investment picking up: Check. U.S. expansion back on track: Check. Interest rates at ultra-low levels: Check, for now.

All tallied, not a bad way to kick off the second half of the year.

Gross domestic product climbed at an annualized pace of 3.1% between April and June, the strongest performance since a 6.2% annualized jump in the first quarter of 2012, Statistics Canada said Friday.

That second-quarter rise was considerably better than the 2.7% that most analysts had expected.

If there was a downside, it would be the federal agency’s revision of first-quarter economic output — to 0.9% from an original estimate of 1.2%. And the fact that business investment, though recently positive, still isn’t nearly as strong as it needs to be to lift the biggest burden for growth off the shoulders of consumers.