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

Canada's economic growth remained flat in July, according to data released on Tuesday, mirroring expectations and hinting at a decelerated start to the third quarter following a robust expansion in the previous quarter. This comes after three consecutive months of positive growth and ahead of newly imposed tariffs from the United States set to impact Canada in August.

Both goods-producing and services-producing industries showed little change in July, reported Statistics Canada. The goods-producing sectors, which account for about a quarter of the gross domestic product, remained largely unchanged. Within these sectors, manufacturing declined by 0.9 percent in July, marking its first decrease in four months, primarily due to a drop in activity at petroleum refineries, which fell by 6.2 percent in the same month.

Mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction also saw a decline of 0.5 percent, marking two consecutive months of decline. However, the utilities and construction sectors grew by 1.7 percent and 1.3 percent respectively, helping to offset much of the decline, according to StatsCan.