Canadian economy expands in October

The Canadian Economy expanded faster than expected in October, driven by the largest monthly gain in manufacturing in nearly two years, a statistics report showed on Monday. Gross domestic product grew 0.3 percent to 1.60 trillion Canadian dollars ($1.51 trillion), growing at the same pace as in September, Statistics Canada said. Year-on-year growth accelerated to 2.7 percent from 2.4 percent previously, the strongest increase since May 2012. Manufacturing provided the biggest growth increase with a rise of 1.3 percent monthly, the best reading since December 2011. The manufacturing growth rate came from increases in output of chemicals, food and beverages and tobacco products, transportation equipment, and primary metals. According to the report, the manufacturing growth rate along with a 1.2 percent gain in September marked the sector’s best performance in two consecutive months since December 2010-January 2011. Manufacturing was the only one of the goods-producing industries to post a gain in October, unlike the services-producing industries which experienced slight increases, including wholesale trade, which grew 1.4 percent, the strongest pace since July. Overall output in services-producing industries expanded 0.3 percent and grew 0.4 percent in the goods-producing industries.