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Canada has scored a solid “A” for the second-best economic performance among G7 countries in 2011 from BMO Capital Markets, however the countries have been graded on a serious bell curve as much of the industrialized world suffered through a trying year.

With a score of 81.6 on BMO’s Economic Performance Indicator (EPI) index, Canada ranks behind only Germany at 89.2 among the G7 group of nations.

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“Still, it was up just a tick [0.1 index points] from last year, which represented the lowest grade for Canada since 1994,” Doug Porter, deputy chief economist with BMO, said in a report.The index is produced by subtracting inflation, jobless rates, budget deficits, current account deficits and credit ratings from a hypothetical perfect score of 100. Surpluses are treated as zero and the indicator knocks off three points for each notch a country is rated below AAA status by Standard & Poor’s.

Canada benefited from an improved budget deficit and lower unemployment, offset by higher inflation. Based on forecasts, BMO expects Canada’s score to improve slightly to 83.3 in 2012.