Statistics
Canada reported on Thursday that the Canadian gross domestic product (GDP) increased
0.6 per cent m-o-m in January 2024, following
a downwardly revised 0.1 per cent m-o-m drop (from flat m-o-m) in the previous month. This marked the strongest monthly
advance in Canada’s GDP since January 2023 (+0.6 per cent m-o-m). Economists
had predicted a 0.4 per cent m-o-m growth for January.
In y-o-y terms,
the Canadian GDP surged 0.9 per cent in January.
According to
the report, both services-producing (+0.7 per cent m-o-m) and goods-producing
(+0.2 per cent m-o-m) businesses supported the February expansion.
Overall, 18 of the 20
industrial sectors demonstrated advances in February, led by educational
services (+6.0 per cent m-o-m), utilities (+3.2 per cent m-o-m), utilities
(+1.4 per cent m-o-m), information and cultural industries (+1.0 per cent
m-o-m), arts, entertainment and recreation (+1.0 per cent m-o-m), and
manufacturing (+0.9 per cent m-o-m). Meanwhile, mining, quarrying, and oil and
gas extraction (-1.9 per cent m-o-m), and construction (-0.5 per cent m-o-m) were
the only sectors that showed decreases.
It was also
reported that preliminary data indicates that real GDP grew 0.4 per cent m-o-m in February,
reflecting broad-based increases across industries, led by mining, quarrying,
and oil and gas extraction, manufacturing, and finance and insurance, which were
partially offset by a decrease in utilities.