OTTAWA - A leading international think-tank says Canada will lead its peers in the G7 in economic growth during the first half of this year.
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development says the outlook for economic growth has brightened for all G7 countries, with the exception of Japan.
But the improvement has been most marked in Canada and to a lesser extent the United States.
Canada is now expected to grow by 5.2 per cent in the first quarter of 2011, and 3.8 per cent in the second.
Germany is the next strongest economy, with growth rates of 3.7 and 2.3 per cent in the two quarters.
Overall, the Paris-based organization says the G7 economies excluding Japan are set to grow at an annual rate of about three per cent in the first half of 2011, well above the organization's previous forecast.
The growth estimates given by the OECD are the middle of a range, meaning the rates could be slightly lower or higher.
The new forecasts exclude Japan because of the uncertainty over the full cost of damage from last month's earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster.
