Canada: Real GDP grows by 1.2% in August vs. 0.9% expected

• Canadian economy grew at a stronger pace than expected in August.
• USD/CAD continues to trade with modest losses near 1.3300.

The economic activity in Canada expanded by 1.2% on a monthly basis in August, the data published by Statistics Canada showed on Friday. This print followed July's growth of 3.1% (revised from 3%) and beat the market expectation of 0.9%.

"This fourth consecutive monthly increase continued to offset the steepest drops on record in Canadian economic activity observed in March and April, however, overall economic activity was still about 5% below February's pre-pandemic level," Statistics Canada noted in its publication. "Both goods-producing (+0.5%) and services-producing (+1.5%) industries were up as 15 of 20 industrial sectors posted increases and two were essentially unchanged in August."

Market reaction

Despite this upbeat data, the CAD is staying relatively quiet against its major rivals. As of writing, the USD/CAD pair was trading at 1.3305, losing 0.14% on a daily basis.thank