Canada's economic growth unchanged in July, August likely to expand 0.2%

OTTAWA — Canada's economic growth remained stagnant in July, according to data released on Tuesday, in line with forecast expectations and indicating a slower start to the third quarter following a robust expansion in the previous quarter. This comes after three consecutive months of positive growth and precedes new U.S. tariffs set to impact Canada in August.

The data from Statistics Canada revealed that both goods-producing and services-producing industries were largely unchanged in July. The goods-producing sectors, which account for about a quarter of the country's gross domestic product, showed no significant movement. Manufacturing, the largest component of goods production, experienced a decline of 0.9 percent in July, marking its first decrease in four months.

This decline was primarily driven by a 6.2 percent drop in activity at petroleum refineries. Additionally, mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction sectors also contracted by 0.5 percent, marking two consecutive months of decline. However, the growth in utilities and construction sectors, up 1.7 percent and 1.3 percent respectively, helped mitigate much of the downturn.