Canada's economy expanded by 0.3% in July, down from June's 0.4% growth but ahead of what economists had been expecting.
Statistics Canada reported Wednesday that the expansion was broad based, with the mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction, manufacturing, and finance and insurance sectors all showing growth.
Economists had been expecting growth to come in at around 0.2%.
Canada's economy has now expanded for two months in a row in June and July after contracting for the first five months of the year.
The data agency's previous gross domestic product release, for June, was one of the most closely watched in recent memory, as economists wondered if the second quarter as a whole would show a contraction in the economy, just as the first one did.
Some economists consider two consecutive quarters of growth to be the bare minimum to call determine a recession. That bar was met because the declines in April and May were too large to be offset by growth in June. But monthly growth in June prompted hopes that the economy may have turned the corner, and a second straight expansion in July — even a tiny one — suggests that may be the case.
Statistics Canada often revises its previous numbers higher or lower in retrospect, as new data for the time period comes in. The data agency did just that on Wednesday, ratcheting June's figure down from an originally reported 0.5% down to 0.4%.
By that metric, the recession that Canada's economy entered into during the first half of 2015, was marginally worse than originally thought. But two consecutive months of GDP growth suggests that whatever one wants to call that economic slowdown, on a macroeconomic level at least, it's over.
Scotiabank noted in a commentary after the numbers were released Wednesday that while it's still early, the third quarter is currently tracking at 2.3% annualized growth compared to the second quarter — well ahead of the Bank of Canada's forecast of 1.5%, and further evidence the economy might be improving.
