Off the wire
• U.S. dollar mixed on inflation data  • Nigerian assembly plants provide 75,000 vehicles in 2015: official  • Oil prices mixed ahead of OPEC meeting  • Irish spending 948,000 USD per hour online: report  • Fort McMurray residents to start returning home Wednesday  • Nigeria seizes almost a ton of meth in 8 years: official  • Over 700,000 displaced children live in camps in NE Nigeria: UNICEF  • Halilovic surprisingly left out of Croatian squad for EURO  • Death toll of migrants in Mediterranean Sea crossing reaches 880: UN agency  • Burundian ruling party willing to learn CPC's experience on state governance  
You are here: 　 Home

Canada's economy grows 0.6 pct in Q1 of 2016

Xinhua, June 1, 2016 Adjust font size:

Canada's real gross domestic product grew by 0.6 percent during January to March in 2016, thanks to rising exports and investment in housing, Statistics Canada reported Tuesday.

Expressed at an annualized rate, real GDP rose 2.4 percent in the first quarter, slightly slower than what economists were expecting. By comparison, real GDP in the United States grew 0.8 percent.

The growth in the first three months followed an GDP increase of 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2015.

The first quarter ended on a weak note, as the economy shrank by 0.2 percent in March, after a 0.1 percent contraction in February. In January, the economy grew by 0.9 percent.

The decline in March came primarily from mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction and retail trade.

Exports were the largest contributor to real GDP growth in the first quarter, rising 1.7 percent, following a 0.4 percent decline in the previous quarter, Statistics Canada said.

Growth in business investment in residential structures accelerated to 2.7 percent in the first quarter, the fifth consecutive quarterly increase. Business investment in new housing construction increased 2.9 percent, after a 0.7 percent decrease in the fourth quarter of 2015.

Meanwhile, business investment in non-residential structures decreased 3.7 percent, continuing a downward trend seen over the previous five quarters. Weak investment activity in the oil and gas sector, blamed on lower commodity prices, was a key factor in the decline.

Even before the slower end to the first quarter was confirmed, economists slashed their outlooks for the second quarter, citing the wildfire that hit Fort McMurray and disrupted energy sector production in the area.

The Canadian dollar initially traded lower in the wake of the release of the GDP figures, but later seesawed. By closing, the loonie was down 0.34 of a U.S. cent at 0.7628 U.S. dollars. Endit