Labour productivity of Canadian businesses fell 0.3% in the first quarter, following a 0.2% increase in the fourth quarter of 2017.

In the first quarter, business output decelerated from the previous quarter, while the pace of growth in hours worked accelerated and surpassed output growth.

Growth in the real gross domestic product (GDP) of businesses slowed to 0.2%, after increasing 0.4% in the previous quarter. The growth in output in the first quarter was mainly moderated by the slowdown in service-producing businesses (+0.2%) due to decreases in real estate and retail trade. However, production growth of goods-producing businesses (+0.6%) continued at a similar pace as in the previous quarter.