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OTTAWA — On the surface, Canada’s economy is displaying signs of returning — albeit in small steps — to some form of normalcy.

Inflation has been making a mild and slow comeback in Canada, warming up after a period of ultra-low price gains that characterized much of the past year, and is now closing in on what policymakers consider a happy medium between sustainable growth and still-affordable costs for consumers.

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But scratch that surface and you might find a dark undercoating.

What may soon re-emerge is a pattern of overall economic weakness, highlighted by a slow recovery from a recession in the first half of 2015 — mild as it was — along with a meagre pattern of job growth, limited business investment and stagnant retail sales.

Obviously, consumers are still spending and adding to their personal debt, but a lot of that borrowed money is going into the real estate market, mainly Toronto and Vancouver — not resources-depressed cities in Alberta and Saskatchewan.