MONEYFederal Finance Minister Joe Oliver is rejecting a forecast from a major American bank suggesting that Canada is already in a recession.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch reported earlier this week that Canada’s economy appears to have shrunk by 0.6 per cent in the second quarter, following a similar contraction in the first three months of the year.

The definition of a recession is two straight quarters of negative growth.

Timmins-James Bay MP Charlie Angus says the numbers have been troubling for quite some time.

“The economy’s been dragging, and we’ve seen no leadership from (Prime Minister) Stephen Harper,” he said.

“He was the guy who understood how to get our economy jump started, but the lack of investment, the lack of a focused, coherent plan is dragging down our numbers, dragging down job rates and now, we see the banks starting to call out the fact that they may be in a recession.”

Speaking in Toronto Friday, Oliver says Canada is not in a recession and he doesn’t believe it will be in one.

He says second quarter results aren’t even out yet and while the Canadian economy got off to a weak start, forecasters have continued to predict solid growth for the last three quarters of the year.

Oliver says the negative first quarter growth was the result of the precipitous drop in the price of oil, which the Bank of Canada says hit quicker and more dramatically than expected — but he says the central bank is still expecting a recovery for the rest of the year.

He also notes the U-S had a weak first quarter as well but is expected to rebound — which he says will help boost growth in Canada.

(With files from The Canadian Press)