CANADA

摘要

Expenditure and output-based national accounts for Q4 and 2015 as a whole painted a dispiriting picture of activity last year. Activity grew by 1.2%, halving the previous year's 2.5% pace. The economy has hard-hit by the collapse in oil and commodity prices which prompted acontraction in GDP in the first half of 2015. Business investment and consumption have also been affected by the sharp retrenchment in oil activity. This latest data report shows that the drag from the recession in global commodity values has not abated. Monthly, output-based GDP increased by 0.2% (m-o-m) in Decemberfollowing a 0.3% advance in November. While November growth was held aloft in part by a 0.4% gain in mining, quarrying, oil & gas extraction, December recorded a -0.7% pullback in the sector. Utilities, meanwhile, contracted by 2.6% over the month. Industrial production as a whole was flat, reined in by a -1.2% fall in energy output. On the upside, though, goods-producing industries were firmly supported by manufacturing which surged by +1.1% (m-o-m), up from +0.3% in the previous month, boosted by both durables and non-durables output. Solid trade indicators also appear to have helped, with the Canadian dollar weaker against the US dollar. December activity managed to offset a 1.8% fall in retail trade on the services side, although this illustrates some of the prevailing weakness in personal expenditure last year. On a quarterly basis, consumption slowed from 0.5% (q-o-q) to 0.2%, bringing the y-o-y rate down from 1.8% to 1.4%. GDP growth fared worse, slowing from 1.1% (y-o-y) in Q3 to 0.5% in Q4.