The country’s economy expanded by 0.3 per cent in November, Statistics Canada said Friday, the first gain following a decline in growth in the previous two months.
The jump was in line with what economists were expecting.
The November reading “managed to match expectations for a change, marking one of the better months for the beleaguered domestic economy in the past year,” BMO chief economist Doug Porter said.
Yet even with the November gain, the sluggish readings in the prior two months suggest the economy grew at best “slightly above zero” in the final three months of the year, or fourth quarter, the economist said, “with non-trivial odds of a negative reading.”
Still stagnant
“As things stand now, we estimate that the economy was stagnant in the fourth quarter,” said David Madani, economist at Capital Economics in Toronto.
Ironically oil activity provided a boost in November, with extraction output up 2.1 per cent. Sliding oil prices are a chief reason why the country’s economy has slowed substantially over the past year.
“The economy has rebounded but partly on account of a recovery in oil production that we suspect has dropped back again,” Madani said.
MORE: This big bank just downgraded Canada’s economic outlook — again
Comments