CBC

A senior economist with the Toronto Dominion Bank says the Canadian Manufacturing sector is in recession. TD economist Marc Levesque says the value of Canadian exports shrank again in June -- compounding a substantial weakness in the Canadian export sector since the beginning of the year. He says there's been sharp declines in industrial and manufacturing output, a deep slump in the high tech sector and business investments are weak. However, Levesque says consumer spending is still buoyant and most economists feel the Central Banks' agressive interest rate cutting on both sides of the border should keep us out of a recession until next year when the U.S. economy is expected to rebound.

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), August 18, 2001