Canada's central bank said officially for the first time on Feb 13, 2001 that the U.S. economic slowdown may cut Canada's growth rate to below 3 percent, but it remained positive about the country's economic prospects. "Primarily because of the spillover of weaker U.S. demand for our exports, we have shaved down our outlook for 2001 and are now projecting that Canada's economic growth will slow to about 3 percent or just below," Deputy Governor Pierre Duguay said in the prepared text of a speech