Statistics Canada released its capacity utilisation rate on Thursday. Canadian capacity utilisation rate declined to 81.1% in the fourth quarter from 81.6% in the third quarter. The third quarter's figure was revised down from 82.0%.

The decrease was mainly driven by declines in the mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction industries, and construction. The capacity utilisation rate in the mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction industry fell to 76.2% in the fourth quarter from 76.8% in the third quarter, while the capacity utilisation rate in construction declined to 83.7% from 84.7%.

In 2015 as whole, capacity utilisation rate was 81.3%, down from 82.3% in 2014.