1 March 2019

Nevertheless, there were also positive results, with wholesale and retail trade, transportation and warehousing, and the finance and insurance sectors expanding.

An annual comparison shows that Canada’s economy showed a 0.4% growth in the fourth quarter, marking a significant slowdown from 2% seen during the previous quarter and the weakest growth since early 2016.

In case of the U.S., the economy expanded by 2.6%.

Such weak results pushed the Canadian dollar down by almost a cent to 75.53 cents US.

“It’s another reason for the central bank to postpone its rate increases for some time”, –  said Nathan Janzen, an economist with the Royal Bank of Canada.