Figures out Tuesday morning showed Canada's economy expanded at an annualized rate of 0.8% in the last three months of 2015, less than the 2.4% figure in the previous period but still much better than what economists had been expecting.
Statistics Canada reported that exports declined by 0.6% between October and December, but imports were down by almost four times that much. The loonie was a factor in that, as Canadians became acutely aware of the Canadian dollar's diminished buying power during the period in question.
The loonie actually rallied on the surprise gross domestic product beat, gaining a quarter of a penny to trade above the 74 cents U.S. level, near its highest point in three months.
The weak showing for December means that for 2015 as a whole, Canada's economy expanded by 1.2%... less than half as much as it grew by the year before. It's also exactly half as much as the U.S. economy grew by last year.
All of the growth came in the second half of the year, as Canada's economy contracted slightly in the first two quarters of 2015.
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