Canada April GDP data
- April prelim estimate from Statistics Canada was -0.8% m/m
- First decline in 12 months
- Prior was +1.1%
- Q1 GDP was +5.6% annualized
- Q2 GDP was 9.6% annualized
- May prelim GDP -0.3%
- Full report
Total Canadian economic activity is about 1% below Feb 2020, when the pandemic began. This is an encouraging report because there were some tight lockdowns in April, May and most of June. Retail trade fell 5.5% in April as 10 of 12 subsectors were down.
It's no surprise that a positive push came from construction, which rose 2.4% in the month on the housing boom.
I would have expected some CAD strength on this report but it's not happening as month-end flows dominate. A wave of USD buying is coming through the market at the moment and that's pushed USD/CAD slightly higher.
