Article content

OTTAWA — Canadian economic growth unexpectedly paused in October as a decline in oil and gas extraction offset gains in the wholesale trade and retail sectors, data from Statistics Canada showed on Friday.

The unchanged reading for gross domestic product was short of economists’ forecasts for a gain of 0.2 per cent following September’s unrevised 0.2 per cent increase.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Loonie droops as Canada’s growth misses the mark Back to video

Growth in the second half of 2017 is expected to have cooled from the blistering pace set in the first half of the year, though analysts expect improvement in the labour market and inflation will see the Bank of Canada continue to tighten interest rates next year.

Activity in goods-producing sectors of the economy declined by 0.4 per cent in October, led by a 1.1 per cent pullback in the mining and oil and gas extraction industry.

It was the fourth decline in the sector in five months as non-conventional oil extraction fell, partly due to a loss of capacity during maintenance. Mining also declined by 0.8 per cent.

But the weakness was tempered by a 1.4 per cent increase in wholesale trade, which was helped by sales of machinery and equipment.

The retail sector grew by 1.1 per cent after three consecutive months of declines as consumers bought more new and used cars. Overall, the service sector grew by 0.2 per cent.

© Thomson Reuters 2017