The August Canada GDP report

  • Prior was +0.2% m/m

  • Year-over-year GDP +2.5% vs +2.4% expected
  • July GDP was +2.4% y/y (revised to 2.3%)
  • Goods 0.0%
  • Services +0.1%
  • Mining, quarrying and oil and gas extraction sector +0.9%
  • Manufacturing -0.6%
  • Full report

Durable manufacturing was down 0.9% as 7 of 10 subsectors decreased in a setback that was led by auto assembly down 1.9% but that was largely due to plant shutdowns with vehicle parts also down 5.0%.

A more worrying trend is the slowdown in construction, which was down 0.4% in the fourth contraction in five months.

"Following declines of 0.4% in June and 2.6% in July, residential construction decreased a further 1.6% in August as single, semi-detached and row houses construction declined," StatsCan said. That's the largest three-month decline since 2009.

On the flipside, home resale activity rose nationwide.