IMF downgrades forecast for Canada's economy in 2016 and 2017

The International Monetary Fund has cut its expectations for how the Canadian economy will perform this year and next.

The international group projects Canada's GDP will expand by 1.5 per cent this year and by 1.9 per cent next year. That's better than the 1.2 per cent performance clocked in 2015, but a pullback from what the IMF was expecting in January, which was 1.7 this year and 2.1 per cent next year.

The drag from the energy sector will be "offset partially by a more competitive currency and an expected increase in public investment," the IMF said.

The unemployment rate is expected to rise to 7.3 per cent by the end of this year before ticking up to 7.4 per cent next year, the IMF now says.

Those numbers are in line with what the Bank of Canada is expecting. In January, the central bank forecasted 1.4 per cent growth this year, and 2.4 per cent next year. The central bank will release its latest projections in its quarterly Monetary Policy Report on Wednesday...

This has been excerpted from 12 April 2016 article by the CBC News.