Canada’s economic growth capped off 2017 at an annualized rate of 1.7%, a pace that’s drawing little enthusiasm from economists.
Responding to Statistics Canada data released Friday (March 2), TD senior economist Brian DePratto said the economy’s “ho-hum” fourth quarter roughly matched the revised pace of the third quarter, which came in at 1.5%.
“Momentum heading into 2018 is modest,” he wrote in a note to investors.
“On the flip side, healthy income gains, a moderately favourable investment environment (at least for domestically-focused firms), and ongoing government stimulus all suggest that growth is likely to continue, albeit at a more sustainable pace.”
The economy was buoyed by growth in housing (+13.4%), business investment (+8.2%) and infrastructure spending (+10.3%).
Meanwhile, household consumption cooled to 2.1% and export growth (+3%) did not keep pace with imports (+6.3%).
“The main message though is that the exciting growth from the middle of 2016 up until the middle of 2017 is now truly in the past, and the economy is back to the drudgery of slogging out something closer to potential of around 2%,” Douglas Porter, chief economist at BMO Nesbitt Burns, wrote in a note to investors.
Amid ongoing trade uncertainty, he does not expect the Bank of Canada to make any moves on the benchmark rate until the second half of 2018.
Statistics Canada also reported
