OTTAWA: Canada’s gross domestic product shrank by 0.3 per cent in October, the first monthly contraction since May, Statistics Canada reported Friday. Goods producing industries such as manufacturing, mining and oil and gas shrank by 1.3 per cent. That wasn’t offset by a small uptick of 0.1 in the service sector, which includes areas such as real estate, retail and wholesale trade.
Manufacturing declined by a full two per cent — its second-worst month since the recession, BMO economist Doug Porter said. “Machinery, metals, oil refining, food, you name it, they were all down heavily in the month,” he noted.. “Statistics Canada just popped a lump of coal into Canadian stockings with a sharp downside disappointment for the economy,” Scotiabank economist Derek Holt said of the numbers, adding that it’s looking like for the quarter as a whole the economy is only on track to eke out a tiny 0.3 per cent gain. “A lot of data still lies ahead for Q4, so it’s premature to write off the quarter, but a steep mountain would have to be climbed to get growth back up to anything decent,” he said.
