国际英语新闻：Canada's economic boom over: finance minister

OTTAWA, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said here Monday that the "boom times" for the country's economy was clearly over and the outlook is "highly uncertain", Financial Post reported.

"This is not a time of booming economic growth," Flaherty said after a meeting with private-sector economists. "This is a time of modest economic growth, and there needs to be some adjustment of expectations. We are not going to see the boom times we saw before."

"We are in a different world today," said the minister.

However, Flaherty said that the government's next budget won't be drastically altered even under such circumstances, but there is a need to recognize "the uncertainty" in the outlook.

The federal government has remained resolute on the need to return to a balanced budget by mid-decade, and the budget plan remains largely on track, he said.

In the first quarter this year, the GDP growth rate of the country reached 6.1 percent high. Afterwards, economic growth dramatically slowed down due to the subdued recovery in the U.S. and softer housing market at home.

Statistics Canada reported last Friday that the country's gross domestic product, the value of all goods and services produced in the economy, fell 0.1 percent in July, the first monthly shrink since August 2009.