The It's Friday, May 29, 2020, just after market close here in New York. This is the Real Vision Daily Briefing.

I'm Ash Bennington here in New York, joined shortly by Ed Harrison in Washington, D.C.

But first, Peter Cooper with the latest market news.

Thanks, Ash.

I'm going to talk about Canada.

Statistics Canada released a new report today concerning some of the country's most recent economic data and how they have fared in light of the coronavirus pandemic.

In the first quarter of 2020, Canada's annualized GDP contracted 8.2%. This number is

slightly better than what was expected. Economists were predicting a 10% decline,

but an 8.2% contraction in Canada's GDP on an annualized basis during the first quarter

is steeper than the US, whose output contracted 5%. Statistics Canada also released

the preliminary estimate for April output, which showed a drop of 11%

following a 7.2% contraction in March. This is the most severe

contraction in Canada since the 2008 financial crisis and it's expected to be the deepest

contraction of the Canadian economy since World War II. About 3 million

Canadians lost their jobs in March and April and over a third of the labor force is

now unemployed or experiencing

displacement such as reduced work hours, according to a report in the Wall Street

Journal. As a result, Canadian household spending fell 2.3% in the

first quarter, which is the largest

quarterly decline recorded. During the same period, the household savings

rate went up to 6.1% in the first quarter as opposed to 3.6% in the

previous quarter.

...