The economy’s output edged higher in August, aided by a pick-up in manufacturing while the beleaguered energy sector also managed to eke out a modest bump in growth.
Statistics Canada said Friday the country’s economy grew by 0.1 per cent, meeting expectations held by economists.
The rise followed surprisingly strong gains in June and July as the economy recovered from a mild recession to start the year.
“After the strong rebound in June [and] July, it’s back to reality for the Canadian economy now. And that reality appears to be very modest growth,” Andrew Grantham, an economist at CIBC, said.
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Manufacturing output advanced 0.4 per cent in August, following gains of 0.6 per cent in June and July. Mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction rose 0.4 per cent in August, following gains of 2.6 per cent in June and 2.4 per cent in July.
“The mining and oil and gas sector has actually posted growth over the past year,” Doug Porter, BMO’s chief economist, noted. “But we would emphasize that this simply captures the physical volume of [oil and gas] output and says nothing about the deep drop in the value of said output and the deep drop in related activities.”
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