CANADA’S ECONOMY SQUEAKED OUT A GAIN IN AUGUST

Adjusted for inflation, Canada’s economy expanded by 0.1 percent in August as continued growth in service industries spending barely offset declining sales by companies making goods, Statistics Canada reported last week.

Agriculture, public services, and retail and wholesale trade grew; construction, manufacturing, mining, and oil and gas production sagged.

The statistics agency predicted the country’s GDP grew 1.6 percent in the third quarter.

TRENDPOST: Canada joins Germany, Italy, and Spain as countries whose growth rate slowed to a fraction of a point in recent months.

The U.S. would have been a member of that group, with consumer spending growing 0.4 percent in the third quarter; only record exports of fossil fuels, likely a temporary phenomenon, lifted growth to 1.6 percent, as we report in “U.S. Exports More Oil as Elevated Prices Cause Tensions at Home” in this issue.

Seeing so many of the world’s key economies slowing to a fraction of a point in growth is another sign that a global recession awaits in the near future.