Ottawa boosts Canada's GDP forecast

Canada's economyshouldgrow byhalf-a-percentage more in 2010 than initially predicted, according to a new survey of private sector economists released Monday.

Canada's gross domestic product will expand by 3.1 per cent in 2010, compared to the 2.6 per cent predicted at the time of the government's spring budget, according to the Department of Finance's latest poll of 15 economists, taken in March.

Ottawa regularly surveys private economists and uses these projections as the basis for its budget modeling.

Even at the new, faster pace, the government's GDP growth is still slower thanthe projection of theBank of Canada. Earlier in April, theCanadian central bank said the national economy would expand by 3.7 per cent in 2010.

Many economists have been hiking their GDP projectionsinrecent monthsafter seeing areas, such as realestate and consumerdemand, performing better than anticipated.

Ottawa pointed out, however, that, while the prediction for growth in 2010 has risen, that for the period 2009 to 2014 an average of two per cent has not.

Canada's GDP growthof 3.1 per centnow matches the growth predicted for the U.S. economy bythe Conference Board of Canada onMonday.