Figures released Thursday by Statistics Canada showed the economy stepped back in January.
The agency said our Gross Domestic Product fell by -0.1% during January when markets had been looking for a 0.1% rise. This is below the already-reduced 0.1% rate of growth seen back in December and substantially beneath the 0.6% growth recorded for January last year.
Statistics Canada attributes the fall to a decline in non-conventional oil output, which posted its largest decline since May 2016, and decreased transaction activity in the real estate market. The statistical body says Canada's services sector also produced its weakest monthly growth rate for more than a year.
Canada's economy saw a strong run of growth during the first half of last year with the economy gaining momentum to expand at an annualized pace of 4.5% in the second quarter, which prompted the Bank of Canada to raise interest rates three times before the end of January 2018. Amid this tightening of monetary policy, momentum now has ebbed from the economy, leading expectations of future rate rises to wane and leaving the Canadian dollar at a loss.
