After six full months of steady increases, Canada’s gross domestic product growth was flat in July, Statistics Canada announced.
The country saw total GDP of $1.63 trillion in July.
Douglas Porter, chief economist and managing director for BMO, called this a “clear disappointment” and that Canada’s economy “stubbed its toe,” saying the consensus was that an increase of 0.2% was expected.
“While there were some special factors weighing on activity in July, this soggy performance trims our estimate of Q3 growth – we are now looking for a 2.5% rise versus an earlier estimate of 3.0%,” Porter said.
“This brings the quarter closer in line with the Bank of Canada’s latest call of 2.3% in Q3 [in the July MPR], following their underestimation of Q2 growth [2.5% versus the actual reading of 3.1%].”
The industries with the biggest contributions to the increase in GDP in July were manufacturing, up 1.0% to $175 billion, and the public sector, up 0.5% to $305 billion.
@EmmaHampelBIV
