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Canada’s economy returned to its sluggish ways in February, with a drop in output that will reinforce expectations of a slow start to the year.

Gross domestic product fell 0.1 per cent, taking back some of the 0.3 per cent gain in January in part due to poor weather, Statistics Canada said Tuesday from Ottawa. Economists were estimating output would be unchanged.

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The February data are consistent with an economy that continues to grapple with a number of headwinds and may have barely grown in the first quarter of 2019, extending a slump that began at the end of last year.

Key Insights

The monthly numbers are in line with the Bank of Canada’s pared back expectations for the quarter. Without any more growth in March, Canada’s economy may have come to another near halt in the first three months of the year, as the central bank is now predicting. Policy makers expect the economy to pick up from the second quarter on.