Canadian Weekly Review: November 3, 2023
by Charles Hong, Happysona Principal Economist
2 min readNov 3, 2023
Real GDP by Industry Growth — August 2023: Stagnant growth influenced by elevated interest rates, inflation, forest fires, and drought conditions.
- Canada’s real GDP remained unchanged for the second consecutive month in August 2023.
- Output from goods-producing industries persisted in its six-month downward trend, decreasing by 0.2%. Notable declines were observed in the agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting, and manufacturing sectors.
- On the other hand, services-producing industries saw a slight increase of 0.1%, primarily driven by the wholesale trade sector.
Labour Force Survey — October 2023: While the Canadian labour market shows signs of deceleration, its overall strength remains evident.
- Total employment increased by 17,500 in October 2023.
- The unemployment rate witnessed a rise from 5.5% to 5.7%, marking the first hike since July.
- The labour force strongly increased, up by 57,800.
S&P Global Canada’s Manufacturing PMI — October 2023: Deterioration observed in manufacturing business conditions.
- Canada’s manufacturing PMI nudged up to 48.6 in October 2023, signaling an ongoing slight contraction in the sector.
- Both new orders and output consistently showed marked reductions.
- Firms reported challenges in recruiting skilled personnel.
Upcoming data release:
During the week of November 6–10, Statistics Canada will release data on September’s merchandise trade and building permits.