OTTAWA - Canada's economy rebounded strongly from a half-year of sub-par growth, posting an above-consensus 2.5 per cent advance in the first three months of the year and setting the country on a stronger recovery path. The report from Statistics Canada also revised the economy's speed from 0.6 to 0.9 per cent for the fourth quarter of 2012, and from 0.7 to 0.8 per cent in the third quarter of last year.

US industrial production fell in April amid a decline in heating oil demand as temperatures returned to normal ranges after an unusually cold March, the Federal Reserve reported Wednesday. Industrial output fell 0.5 percent in April, led by a 3.7 percent decline in utilities "as heating demand fell back to a more typical seasonal level," the central bank said. The decline was sharper than the 0.2 drop expected by analysts, and followed two straight months of higher output, with March production up a revised 0.3 percent.

American employers hired at the slowest pace in nine months in March, a sign that Washington's austerity drive could be stealing momentum from the economy.The economy added just 88,000 nonfarm jobs last month and the jobless rate ticked a tenth of a point lower to 7.6 percent largely due to people dropping out of the work force, Labor Department data showed on Friday. Economists polled by Reuters had expected a gain of 200,000. Analysts suspected some of the weakness was due to tax hikes enacted in January.

By Julien Toyer MADRID (Reuters) - Spain will revise down its economic growth forecast for 2013 next week and seek more time from the European Union to reduce its budget deficit as recession cuts deeper than previously expected, a government source told Reuters. Spain's gross domestic product (GDP) will be forecast to shrink by 1 percent, rather than 0.5 percent, the source said, adding that the government intended to shift emphasis to growth rather than deficit reduction.