Overall growth for the Canadian economy was better than in the previous month
Canada’s latest GDP figures were released Tuesday and showed the continued recovery for the economy.
The figures from Statistics Canada revealed a 1.1% growth in real GDP in March, up from 0.4% in February. However, total economic activity was around 1% below that of March 2020.
There were gains for 18 of the 20 main sectors with notable growth for retail trade (+3.7%) – although this was down from the 5.9% jump in February; construction (+2.2%); and wholesale trade (+1.8%).
Services sector industries overall matched the goods producers with a 1.1% increase in real GDP, with a 5.0% gain for the accommodation and food services sub-sector.
Professional services gained 1% with the offices of real estate brokers and agents benefitting from the strong Canadian housing market and posting a 2.6% gain.
Financial services
Financial services recorded a 0.2% gain in March due to winners and losers. The financial investment services, funds and other financial vehicles (+1.3%) and depository credit intermediation and monetary authorities (+0.2%) gained while non-depository credit intermediation and activities related to credit intermediation (-0.3%) and insurance carriers and related activities (-0.3%) declined.
The finance and insurance sector posted a 1% gain for the first quarter of 2021, marking the eighth consecutive quarter of growth.
The overall service sector saw 1.4% growth in the first three months of 2021 with goods producers gaining 2.2%.
Statistics Canada says that preliminary data for April shows a 0.8% decline in real GDP, the first drop since April 2020. This data will be revised on June 30.
