Canada: Flat GDP data for July – RBC

Josh Nye, senior economist at Royal Bank of Canada, notes that Canadian GDP was flat in July following four months of gains with goods output declining for a second straight month and services sector witnessing another broadly-based increase.

Key Quotes

“The Canadian economy’s best growth streak since 2017 came to an end in July thanks to a broadly-based decline in the goods sector. Oil and gas was the main source of weakness.”

“Manufacturing output was down only slightly, though the sector’s earlier outperformance relative to countries like the US and Germany does seem to be gradually fading. The good news is that there continues to be little evidence of spillover into the larger services economy, which has posted above-trend gains in four of the last five months.”

“Today’s data are consistent with the BoC’s view that growth over the second half of the year is likely to be slightly slower than the first half. But again, there are few signs of a broader slowdown in today’s data.”