Statistics Canada announced on Tuesday that the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) edged up 0.1 percent m-o-m in December after a revised 0.8 m-o-m increase in November (originally a gain of 0.7 percent m-o-m).

That was below economists’ forecast for an advance of 0.3 percent m-o-m.

In the forth quarter of 2020, the Canadian GDP grew 2.3 percent q-o-q, following an unrevised 8.9 percent q-o-q surge in the third quarter.

According to the report, the q-o-q increase in GDP was strengthened by a large change in business inventories, as well as increases in government final consumption expenditure, business investment in machinery and equipment (+7.0 percent q-o-q), and housing investment (+4.3 percent q-o-q).

Expressed at an annualized rate, Canada’s GDP climbed 9.6 percent in the fourth quarter after a revised 40.6 percent jump in the previous quarter (originally a 40.5 percent surge).

In 2020, real GDP shrank 5.4 percent, the steepest annual decline since quarterly data were first recorded in 1961.