OTTAWA, May 30: Canada’s economy stumbled in the first quarter of the year as activity contracted 0.1 per cent, marking the first decline in almost five years, a government report showed on Friday.

The slight quarter-over-quarter decline confounded most analysts’ expectations of a modest rise after the economy grew a meagre 0.2 per cent in the last quarter of 2007.

On an annualised basis, the decline represented a 0.3 per cent pace of decline in gross domestic product (GDP), according to Statistics Canada.

Canada became the first of the major industrialised economies to turn negative in the face of a global credit squeeze stemming from a meltdown in the US real estate market. But some analysts said Canada’s economy remains relatively resilient and that the negative figure could be a statistical fluke.—AFP