Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said Tuesday the government has increased its forecast for growth for Canada.

He made the comments after a meeting in Ottawa with the country's top private-sector economists.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty predicts Canada's economic growth will peak in 2011, at 3.2 per cent, but then slow over the next three years. (Dave Chidley/Canadian Press)

Flaherty's September fiscal update predicted growth of 2.3 per cent.

On Tuesday, Flaherty said growth is expected to peak in 2011, at 3.2 per cent, but then slow over the next three years, to 2.6 per cent in 2014.

He gave no indication how the revisions would affect the budget deficit, expected to be $56 billion this year. Ottawa has predicted Canada's debt will grow by about $164 billion by the end of the 2014-15 fiscal year.

"While there have been encouraging signs in recent months that the economy continues to stabilize, the global economy remains fragile," Flaherty told reporters.

He also said there is no need for Ottawa to provide more stimulus spending for the economy beyond the end of the current program, which expires in 2011.

The government now expects the unemployment rate to average 8.5 per cent this year, a full point higher than estimated in the January 2009 budget. Flaherty thought the situation so serious last January that he tabled an unprecedented $46 billion in stimulus spending and tax cuts to try to resuscitate the economy.

With files from The Canadian Press