Economy grows more than expected in January

The Canadian economy grew by a better-than-expected 0.5 per cent in January, rebounding from December's weather-induced shrinkage.

Many economists were expecting to see growth of between 0.3 and 0.4 per cent, even though January had a few of its own nasty weather surprises. GDP fell 0.5 per cent in December.

Manufacturing, mining and oil and gas extraction, retail and construction led January's turnaround, Statistics Canada said. Agriculture, forestry and utilities were the only sectors to register month-over-month declines.

Manufacturing's rebound was particularly robust, growing by 2.0 per cent in January — fully reversing December's 1.9 per cent slide.

But some analysts noted that higher GDP did not translate into more jobs on Canadian payrolls...

...Statistics Canada also reported today that employers cut the number of employees on their Canadian payrolls by 7,000 between December and January.

In a separate report, Statistics Canada said wage growth was at its highest level in 16 months. Average weekly earnings, including overtime, were up 3.0 per cent year-over-year in January, led by Alberta's 5.1 per cent gain...

For the year as a whole, StatsCan said GDP was 2.5 per cent higher than the previous January.

This has been excerpted from 31 March 2014 article by CBC News, and is avaiable in its entirety at http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/economy-grows-more-than-expected-in-january-1.2592493.