Statistics Canada
Symbol of the Government of Canada

Gross domestic product by industry

Warning View the most recent version.

Archived Content

Information identified as archived is provided for reference, research or recordkeeping purposes. It is not subject to the Government of Canada Web Standards and has not been altered or updated since it was archived. Please "contact us" to request a format other than those available.

October 2008 (Previous release)

Real gross domestic product by industry declined 0.1% in October after increasing 0.1% in September.

Declines in wholesale trade, manufacturing and in the output of real estate agents and brokers contributed the most to the October decrease. Residential construction and retail trade also retreated. On the other hand, economic activity advanced in several service industries while the output of the energy sector regained some of the ground lost in the previous two months.

Chart 1
Small decrease in economic activity

Wholesale trade falls

Value added in wholesale trade fell 2.7% in October. The wholesaling of automotive and personal and household products, as well as recyclable metal products, fell significantly in October.

This decline in wholesaling activities was due in part to the lower volume of international trade, both in terms of exports and imports.

Retail trade declines slightly

Value added in retail trade edged down 0.1% in October, remaining essentially at the same level since May. The decline was widespread among the sub-sectors, but more notable in beer, wine and liquor stores, home centres and hardware stores, and furniture and home furnishing stores.

Note to readers

The monthly gross domestic product (GDP) by industry data are chained volume estimates with 2002 as their reference year. This means that the estimates for each industry and aggregate are obtained from a chained volume index multiplied by the industry's value added in 2002. For the 1997 to 2005 period, the monthly estimates are benchmarked to annually chained Fisher volume indexes of GDP obtained from the constant-price input-output tables.

For the period starting with January 2006, the estimates are derived by chaining a fixed-weight Laspeyres volume index to the prior period. The fixed weights are the industry output and input prices of 2005. This makes the monthly GDP by industry estimates more comparable with the expenditure-based GDP data, chained quarterly.

Revisions

With this release of monthly GDP by industry, revisions have been made back to January 2008. For more information about monthly GDP by industry, see the National economic accounts module on our website (www.statcan.gc.ca/nea-cen/index-eng.htm).

The overall decline in retail trade mirrored a drop in imports of consumer goods. New car dealers reported a higher volume of activity in October despite a decrease in the number of new vehicles sold, suggesting a rise in their volume of used cars sold and repair work. Used car dealers reported a substantial increase in activity in October for a third consecutive month.

Chart 2
Retail trade edges down

Manufacturing activity retreats

Manufacturers cut back production 0.7% in October. Manufacturers of motor vehicles (-8.6%) and paper products (-2.4%) again reduced their activity as demand on foreign markets continued to trend downward. The production of primary metal products fell for a second consecutive month after advancing rapidly during the summer months.

Activity in sawmills, as well as in the upstream forestry and logging industry, remained relatively stable over the last three months as exports of lumber picked up slightly after a series of declines.

Energy sector output increases

The increase in oil and gas extraction, and related support activities accounted for almost the entire 1.2% advance in the output of the energy sector. Both oil and natural gas extraction increased in October, with natural gas outpacing oil. Domestic demand for energy has been essentially flat in recent months. Foreign demand for crude oil has strengthened since last August, while showing a seesaw pattern in the case of natural gas.

The increased production of oil and gas was a major factor in the strength of related support activities in October.

The output of the mining sector excluding oil and gas fell 2.2% in October. The decline in metal ore and coal mines exceeded the modest rise in non-metal mines. The prices of primary commodities on international markets have fallen sharply since the beginning of the year.

Construction activity edges down

Activity on construction sites fell 0.3% in October. The decline in residential building construction outpaced the increases posted elsewhere in this sector.

Housing construction decreased 1.2% in October. A substantial drop in single-family dwellings and a decline in alterations and improvement work more than offset the rises in the other categories of residential construction. An increase in institutional buildings, particularly hospitals in Ontario and schools across the country, was behind the advance in the construction of non-residential buildings.

Demand for existing houses, which had been weakening since the summer of 2007, fell sharply in October. The drop was widespread, as none of the major markets were spared from the downturn. As a result, the real estate agents and brokers industry fell 14.3% over the month, the largest monthly decline in over a decade.

Chart 3
Main industrial sectors' contribution to total growth

The finance and insurance sector increases

The finance and insurance sector rose 0.4% in October. As in September, the unusually high volume of trading on the stock exchanges in October partially offset another steep decline in mutual fund sales. Elsewhere in the sector, there was a notable increase in fixed-term and demand deposits.

Available on CANSIM: table 379-0027.

Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 1301.

The October 2008 issue of Gross Domestic Product by Industry, Vol. 22, no. 10 (15-001-XWE, free), is now available from the Publications module of our website.

Data on gross domestic product by industry for November will be released on January 30, 2009.

For more information, or to order data, contact the dissemination agent (toll-free 1-800-887-4623; 613-951-4623; IAD-Info-DCI@statcan.gc.ca). To enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Bernard Lefrançois (613-951-3622), Industry Accounts Division.

Table 1
Monthly gross domestic product by industry at basic prices in chained (2002) dollars