Joe Oliver predicts solid economic growth this year

New GDP numbers for the month of April are causing economists to forecast a possible recession for Canada, but Finance Minister Joe Oliver doesn't think the bad news will tarnish the Conservative brand as good fiscal managers heading into the election.

"I think people understand the recent economic data is a result of external events," he told host Chris Hall in an interview on CBC Radio's The House, pointing to the fall in the price of oil and international instability in countries like Greece as factors.

Oliver is confident the country is not headed toward a recession, despite new data from Statistics Canada earlier this week that shows GDP has shrunk in each of the first four months of the year — two-thirds of the way toward the technical definition of a recession.

"We don't believe there will be [a recession]," Oliver said. "We're expecting solid growth for the full year."

April's federal budget assumed economic growth of about two per cent this year. So far, the numbers show the economy shrank by 0.6 per cent in the first three months of the year, and another 0.1 per cent in April.

Canada 'in a bit of a funk'

The government's budget projection accounts for a weak first quarter due to the dramatic decline in the price of oil, he said.

Now though, with a barrel of oil stabilizing in the high $50 range, Oliver is predicting a more positive second half to 2015.

"There is an indication that consumers are becoming more optimistic and, also, manufacturers are looking for a more robust period ahead," he said.

"We're going to have a surplus this year equal to the amount we forecasted, which is $1.4 billion. I'm not suggesting there aren't other views out there. We're monitoring the situation, of course, but we remain comfortable that we're going to have a solid growth this year."

One of those with a differing opinion is Bank of America economist Emanuella Enenajor.

"I think the worst is hopefully behind us, but I don't know that we're going to get rip-roaring growth in the latter half of this year," she told The House in a separate interview.

"We got a pretty disappointing GDP read for the month of April, and it sets us up for a very, very weak second quarter. Under most reasonable scenarios, we're going to have a negative quarter, and that's the second negative quarter in a row. So technically Canada likely was in a recession the first half of this year."

Enenajor also disagrees with Oliver's outlook for the manufacturing industry.

"The manufacturing sector doesn't appear to be really leading growth either, so we're stuck in a bit of a funk," she said. "Growth is dependent on highly levered consumers and domestic demand, which remains quite weak."

That's why Enenajor doesn't believe the Bank of Canada will lower interest rates quite yet. In January, the central bank's governor, Stephen Poloz, made a surprise rate cut from one per cent to 0.75 per cent — a move he referred to last week as "life-saving surgery" for the Canadian economy.

The bank's next interest rate announcement is July 15.

"There's a lot of speculation that they might actually ease, but I think the governor will hold rates for now," Enenajor said.

"Fundamentally there are underlying challenges in the economy, so there's a real risk the bank might ease later this year," she added.

Oliver said he agreed with Poloz's January rate cut, saying the Bank of Canada hasn't needed to take the "draconian steps" that are happening in Europe.

What keeps Oliver awake at night?

Oliver admitted Canada is in a "fragile economic international environment," thanks in part to the global economy that he called "very disappointing … really quite mediocre."

"We've seen a U.S. economy that has had an even weaker first quarter than we did, China's growth is down, Japan just emerged from a recession and Russia is hurting," he said.

But it's a different country altogether — Greece — that worries the finance minister more, as the debt-ridden country heads into a referendum this weekend.

"People ask me what keeps you up at night, and then they stopped asking me after the price of oil fell, but there's another reason for concern," he said. "The Greece situation is a reflection of the fragility of the international market."

"We're comfortable that there is strong leadership in Europe to deal with it, but here in Canada we need strong leadership also," Oliver added.

"This isn't the time to take risks. We can't experiment with risky plans that could drive us into a deficit."