Canada’s economy remained essentially unchanged for a second straight month in August, and preliminary numbers show a similar story for September.
Statistics Canada said higher interest rates, inflation, forest fires, and drought conditions continued to weigh on the economy in August.
Services-producing industries edged up 0.1 per cent while goods-producing industries contracted 0.2 per cent.
Wholesale trade saw the biggest increase at 2.3 per cent, marking the third increase in four months.
The mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction sector rose for the third consecutive month, up 1.2 per cent.
Manufacturing contracted 0.6 per cent in August, which was the third straight month of decreases for the sector.
Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting contracted 3.2 per cent — its largest decline in two years.
Meanwhile, preliminary numbers for September and the third quarter suggest that real GDP was essentially unchanged.
Those numbers will be updated with the release of official GDP data in late November.
