Oil and gas extraction, motor vehicle manufacturing and the banking sector led the gains, but lower earnings in other non-financial services sectors slowed overall growth, as per Statistics Canada.
Employee compensation rose 0.8 percent, led by wage growth in health care (+3.2 percent) and construction (+2.3 percent). Saskatchewan (+1.4 percent), Alberta (+1.2 percent) and British Columbia (+1.0 percent) recorded the fastest wage growth.
The household saving rate fell to 5.7 percent, the lowest since early 2024, as disposable income (+0.8 percent) failed to keep pace with nominal consumption (+1.0 percent).
CIBC’s Andrew Grantham noted the “headline GDP posted a 2.2 percent annualised advance… modestly above the consensus forecast,” attributing the growth to “trade and inventories.”
He added, “While the composition of Q1 growth was not particularly strong… the Canadian economy is faring better than we previously expected.”