Canada's economy will grow only modestly over the next two as high household debt levels and a cooling housing market restrain consumer spending, a Reuters poll found.
The Canadian economy will grow 2.3 percent this year and 2.6 percent next year, according to the median forecast of 33 economists surveyed.
Those predictions are almost unchanged from January's poll and lower than forecasts for the United States, which is expected to grow 2.7 percent in 2014 and 3 percent in 2015.
Economists lowered their forecast for annualized growth in the first quarter of this year to 1.7 percent from 2.2 percent in January's poll. Forecasts for the remaining quarters of this year and the first half of next year were nearly unchanged.
"We don't have much potential on the domestic side, at least in the near term, to move our economy at a rapid rate owing to elevated household debt and a cooling housing market," said Sal Guatieri, senior economist at BMO Capital Markets.
