CANADA LOSES G7 GROWTH CROWN

Canada’s status as one of the fastest growing Group-of-seven economies is coming to an end. First-quarter numbers due Friday will kick off what’s expected to be a historic decline in output this year, with economists predicting Canada’s economy shrank by an annualized 10 per cent in the three months through March, a record. That would mark just the start of the COVID-19 destruction, with second quarter gross domestic product expected to plummet a further 41 per cent annualized before recovering later in the year. The result is a performance that places Canada somewhere in the middle of the pack, at best, among the world’s most advanced economies, a reflection of how the global downturn is hitting smaller, export-driven countries particularly hard. Canada has been at or near the top spot for all but two of the past 10 years.