Canadian economic growth remains unchanged in February

Canada’s economic growth remained the same in February, as compared with consensus expectations of a growth of 0.1 percent.

Most of the weakness for the February data is because of disruptions in two main sectors. In transportation and warehousing, rail blockades and a derailment led to the fall of 5.1 percent in the rail transportation category in February. Education services dropped almost 2 percent sequentially, owing to the rotating teachers’ strikes in Ontario. Stripping these two categories, GDP growth might have been 0.2 percent.

The goods producing industries recorded a growth of 0.1 percent, aided by a solid rise of 0.7 percent in mining, quarrying and oil and gas extraction. This subsector was driven by a rise in potash production and support activities for oil and gas.

Meanwhile, service industry recorded a flat growth. However, there were some decent performers, markedly real estate, rental and leasing, which rose 0.5 percent sequentially due to strong resale activity at the time.

“The February data gives us a chance to reflect on how quickly the pandemic has changed things. Real estate has gone from running hot to virtual stasis in less than a month's time, and the necessary hit to sectors like accommodation and food services and arts, entertainment and recreation will be historically unprecedented. Fortunately, with economic re-opening plans starting to take shape across the country, there is a little bit of light beginning to form at the end of the tunnel”, said TD Economics in a research report.