The Financial Post reports in its Friday edition that Canada may not technically be in a recession, but some economists argue the country's declining per-capita output mimics trends of prior downturns, so there is a need for policy-makers to look beyond the overall positive economic numbers the country has posted in recent quarters. The Post's Naimul Karim writes that Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem touched upon this Wednesday when he announced a second consecutive cut in interest rates, and said the central bank will "have to look at both" the total economic growth and the output per person to analyze the state of the economy while making rate decisions. "Households have actually been cutting back on spending," he said during the news conference. "But with high rates of immigration, there are more households, so that's boosting the GDP." Consumer spending accounts for more than half of the gross domestic product and many newcomers are also workers who add to the economy's productive capacity, Royal Bank of Canada economists said in a recent report. GDP per capita is calculated by dividing the country's total GDP by its total population. Canada's GDP per capita has declined in six of the past seven quarters.