Canada is officially in a recession that's been caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the C.D. Howe Institute's Business Cycle Council declared Friday.

The council, which monitors recessions and recoveries in Canada, said the economy peaked in February, just before drastic measures to slow the spread of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 were implemented across the country.

"Members agreed that by applying the council's methodology to the preliminary data available, Canada entered a recession in the first quarter of 2020," the council said in a statement.

There are no hard and fast rules for declaring a recession, although one rule of thumb used by economists is that an economy is probably in one if it has shrunk for two three-month periods in a row.

The council rejects the "two quarters" rule and instead defines a recession as a "pronounced, persistent and pervasive decline in aggregate economic activity" based largely on GDP and the job market.

The COVID-19 pandemic is still less than two months old in Canada, but the council said Friday that the slowdown is already so swift and deep that it's safe to declare a recession already...

This was excerpted from the 1 May 2020 edition of CBC News.