Indeed, consumer confidence declined in six of the last seven months and in April it decreased 4.9 points to 75.6. In addition, although in February, retail sales returned to growth, the expansion is still very low compared to 2012 levels. More importantly, the housing market which have been supporting the growth through 2010 and 2011 have eased substantially due to tighter mortgage rules brought in by the federal government last July. In fact, in April, the sales of existing homes fell 30.9 percent over the same month of 2012. Moreover, in April, the jobless rate remained at 7.2 percent, the highest level since last November. To make things even worse, in April, the Ivey Purchasing Managers Index unexpectedly decreased, after rising in the previous month. On the positive side, exports have been on the upward trend since July of 2012 and in March, it grew 5.1 percent over the previous month, mostly due to an increase in the shipments to the United States and Japan, 4 percent and 25.2 percent respectively.

In the fourth quarter of 2012, GDP expanded only 0.2 percent over the previous quarter, similar to the gain registered in the third quarter. On a year over year basis, the economy grew 1.1 percent, down from the 1.5 percent registered in third quarter.		In February, retail sales increased 1.5 percent over the same month of the previous year, following a 0.1 percent fall in January.
In March, exports increased 5.1 percent compared to the previous month and 2.3 percent on a year over year basis. In the same period, Canada posted a trade surplus of C$24 million.		In April, the Ivey Purchasing Index declined 9.4 points to 52.2, from the 61.6 points registered in the previous month.