It appears our economy moved into reverse to begin calendar year 2015.
Figures released by Statistics Canada this morning show Canada's gross domestic product shrank by 0.1% in January, a weak showing, but better than what economists had been expecting.
The agency said the service sector declined by 0.3% even as the goods-producing industry rose by 0.3%.
After shrinking in December, oil and gas production actually increased 2.6% in January as Canada's oil producers kept pumping oil despite low prices.
All the growth came from non-conventional oil and gas extraction (such as oilsands oil), which can be more volatile.
On the services side, just about everything was smaller, but the data agency attributed the drop to decreases in wholesale and retail trade and — to a lesser extent — in transportation and warehousing services, accommodation and food services.?
Still, the overall 0.1% contraction was better than the consensus of expectations, which was for a 0.2% contraction.
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