Statistics Canada announced on Monday that the country's gross domestic product (GDP) edged down 0.1 percent m-o-m in October, following a 0.1 percent advance in September. That marked the first decline in eight months.
That was below economists' forecast for a 0.1 percent m-o-m growth.
According to the report, the manufacturing sector contracted 1.4 percent m-o-m in October due to broad-based declines in both durable (-2.3 percent m-o-m) and non-durable (-0.3 percent m-o-m) manufacturing. Retail trade dropped 1.1 percent m-o-m in October, recording its largest decline since March 2016, while wholesale trade fell 1.0 percent m-o-m, continuing its sequence of increases alternating with declines since July. Meanwhile, transportation and warehousing rose 0.6 percent m-o-m in October, while the mining, quarrying and oil and gas extraction sector edged up 0.1 percent m-o-m. The construction sector was flat m-o-min October as advances in non-residential construction (+0.5 percent m-o-m) and engineering and other construction activities (+0.2 percent m-o-m) were offset by losses in residential construction (-0.2 percent m-o-m) and repair construction (-0.3 percent m-o-m).
In y-o-y terms, the Canadian GDP rose 1.2 percent in October.