Canada’s economy contracted by 0.2 per cent in February, according to Statistics Canada.
That partly offset the 0.4 per cent increase in real gross domestic product we saw a month earlier.
After driving growth in January, goods-producing industries drove the decline in February, down 0.6 per cent.
Mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction saw the largest decrease at 2.5 per cent, said StatCan.
Construction contracted for the first time in four months, down by 0.5 per cent.
Services-producing industries were down 0.1 per cent as contractions in transportation and warehousing, as well as real estate and rental and leasing were partially offset by a rise in finance and insurance.
StatCan said early estimates suggest that real GDP increases by 0.1 per cent in March, which means the economy would have expanded by 0.4 per cent in the first quarter.
The official estimates will be available on May 30.
