Canadian building permits rose 7.2%, totaling to $5.0 billion in August, the Statistics Canada reported Tuesday. Data was much higher than the -10.0% in July and beats consensus forecast of +4.5%.
Although most of the increase in construction permits was due to gains in Ontario and British Columbia, Alberta also contributed to the increment. The largest declines for the month were in Saskatchewan, Quebec, New Brunswick, Manitoba and Nova Scotia.
In August, building permits in the residential sector increased 11.2%, while the non-residential sector saw a 2.2% advance.
Economists expected building permits to rise 5%, following a revised decrease of 10% the previous month.
