Canada enters surprise technical recession amid tariff uncertainty

Reuters ^ | May 29, 2026 | Promit Mukherjee

[MinorityRepublican]

Canada's economy posted a surprise contraction in the first quarter versus the year before, making it two straight ‌quarters of annualized decline - which some economists call a technical recession - as the country struggles with U.S. tariff uncertainty.

Gross domestic product declined at an annualized rate of 0.1% in the first quarter, Statistics Canada said on Friday, compared with a downwardly revised contraction of 1% in the fourth quarter of last year.

Analysts ​polled by Reuters and the Bank of Canada had predicted first-quarter growth of a robust 1.5%. On a quarterly basis, ​first-quarter GDP was unchanged against a decline in the fourth quarter of last year. Canada's economy has largely ⁠withstood trade uncertainty and tariff impacts for more than a year, but the knock-on effects of tariffs have sapped investments, hiring and ​expenditure, and driven up prices.

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TOPICS: Canada
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[srmanuel]

I guess the “Elbows Up” campaign didn’t work out, in fact in the last couple of days, Carney has said Canada can help MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, in the past MAGA was a dirty word and Carney is embracing it.

[PTBAA]

The only people surprised are those who rely on the CBC, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Liberal govt, for their view of reality.

Now back out the govt deficit spendinag and tell me what the actual contraction is.

[Kudsman]

They should definitely suicide some more people. That should help with the old recession thing. Most things probably, eh?

[faithhopecharity]

1. not a surprise given the current Canadian regime’s policies vis a vis USA
2. it won’t be just a “technical recession” it will be a REAL recession, and very soon too
3. Canada’s federal govt is hell-bent on destroying the country, imho. (similar to the DNC nowadays in USA or Labour in UK)