Canada’s GDP dips in October

Canada’s gross domestic product by industry declined 0.1 percent in October after increasing 0.1 percent in September, Statistics Canada said Wednesday.

Most of the decrease was attributed to declines in wholesale trade, manufacturing and in the output of real estate agents, the report said.

Wholesale trade fell 2.7 percent in October, while manufacturers cut back production 0.7 percent. Construction activity fell 0.3 percent in October, led by residential building.

Demand for existing houses fell sharply in October, and as a result, real estate agents and brokers industry numbers fell 14.3 percent over the month, StatsCan said.

On the plus side, because of the unusually high volume of trading on the stock exchanges, the finance and insurance sector rose 0.4 percent in October, the report said.