Canada’s economy has met the criteria for a "technical" recession – two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth.

But as CTV’s Chief Financial Commentator Pattie Lovett-Reid points out, most economists see the recent slowdown as a “mild” recession at worst, because so many of the larger financial indicators are still positive.

Here are four reasons why many analysts feel Canadians should remain optimistic about the current state of the economy:

Housing hanging on

A TD Bank report released Monday said low interest rates have kept hot housing markets like Toronto and Vancouver "humming," while Prairie markets affected by falling commodity prices "have weakened … to a lesser degree than originally anticipated.” And markets that were falling earlier, such as Ottawa and Montreal, “have seen activity either stabilize or perk up.”

Auto sales are up

In bad times, consumers tend to hold off on big purchases like new cars and trucks. For example, annual Canadian auto sales fell from about 1.65 million in 2008 to approximately 1.45 million in 2009 amid our last recession. But the latest figures show new vehicle sales in Canada are currently rising. In August, there were 175,512 vehicles sold nationwide -- a 2.2 per cent increase over a year ago, according to DesRosiers Automotive Consultants.

Exports are booming

The drop in oil prices has depressed the Canadian dollar, which closed just under 76 cents U.S. on Tuesday. A low dollar is great for Canadian exporters, because it makes their wares more affordable to our biggest trading partner, the United States. In fact, exporters were already noticing a big uptick in demand by June. The value of Canada's exports rose 6.3 per cent that month, to $44.6 billion -- the biggest one-month gain since 2006.

Unemployment is steady

Canada added 161,000 jobs between July 2014 and July 2015, according to Statistics Canada’s most recent Labour Force Survey. Adding in other factors, like population growth, and that meant the unemployment rate remained at a steady at 6.8 per cent for the sixth consecutive month.