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| - Canada's GDP plunged 9 percent in March due to travel restrictions and temporary business closures to fight the coronavirus pandemic, dragging down first quarter growth to -2.6 percent, Statistics Canada said Wednesday. The estimates marked the biggest one-month GDP drop on record (since 1961), but beat analyst forecasts as low as -11.7 percent for the quarter. On Tuesday, the IMF predicted Canada's economy would contract -6.2 percent this year, before rebounding 4.2 percent in 2021. "Economic disruptions have been both deep and widespread in the month of March," Statistics Canada said in a statement. It said that among the hardest hit by social distancing measures and government restrictions were the travel and tourism sectors, including hotels and restaurants. Retail (other than food), entertainment and sporting events, as well as movie theatres also posted major declines. But it's not all doom and gloom, with some sectors actually posting gains in March. Health, food distribution, online retailing and streaming, for example, saw an uptick. Despite a collapse in oil prices and lower investment in the energy sector, early indications showed that oil and gas extraction and pipeline transportation "had not yet been substantially impacted" as storage facilities were still being filled. amc/ec
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