Canadian Real Domestic Product Increases in April

Statistics Canada (StatsCan) reported today (6-30-22) that real gross domestic product (GDP) rose 0.3% in April, following a 0.7% expansion in March, led by the mining, quarrying and oil and gas extraction sector and client-facing industries.

According to the report both goods-producing (+0.9%) and services-producing (+0.1%) industries were up, as 13 of 20 industrial sectors expanded in April. Advance information indicates that real GDP decreased 0.2% in May. Output was down in the mining, quarrying and oil and gas extraction, manufacturing, and construction sectors. An increase was recorded in the transportation and warehousing sector. Owing to its preliminary nature, this estimate will be updated on July 29 with the release of the official GDP data for May.

A specific look at the GDP of the construction sector reveals that it was essentially unchanged in April, following three months of growth as subsectors were evenly split between increases and decreases. Residential building construction contracted 1.2% in April following three months of growth. Weaker activity in home alterations and improvements more than offset across the board expansions in all types of new residential building construction. Repair construction was down for the first time in four months, decreasing 1.5% in April, as contractions in both the residential and non-residential repair activities contributed to the decline. Engineering and other construction activities increased 1.5% in April and has expanded continuously since December 2020. Non-residential building construction also rose (+1.4%) in April, as all types of new non-residential building construction were up.