{"id":32819,"date":"2026-05-05T15:22:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T15:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/32819\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T15:22:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T15:22:07","slug":"canadas-services-sector-improves-in-april-but-remains-in-contraction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/32819\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada\u2019s services sector improves in April but remains in contraction"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

People walk north on Bay St. as they head to work in Toronto\u2019s Financial District.Fred Lum\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

The downturn in Canada\u2019s services economy eased in April as the level of new business increased despite concerns about tariffs and the war in the Middle East, S&P Global\u2019s Canada services PMI data showed on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The headline Business Activity Index rose to 49.2 last month from 47.2 in March, marking the highest level since October.<\/p>\n

Still, the index remained below the 50 no-change mark for a sixth straight month – a reading below 50 shows deterioration in activity.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhilst Canada\u2019s service sector continued to contract, it did so only marginally in April,\u201d Paul Smith, economics director at S&P Global Market Intelligence, said in a statement. \u201cMoreover, against the backdrop of tariffs and the war in the Middle East, overall performance wasn\u2019t too bad when viewed in this context.\u201d<\/p>\n

U.S. sectoral tariffs have badly hurt Canada\u2019s economy, while the surge in oil prices due to the war has raised the outlook for inflation globally.<\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s manufacturing sector expands as Iran war drives stockpiling and supply concerns<\/a><\/p>\n

The new business index moved above the 50 level for the first time since November, 2024, hitting 50.3, up from 47.7 in March. Confidence in the outlook rose to an 18-month high. Firms pointed to government initiatives supportive of wider economic growth in the year ahead, Smith said. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney\u2019s fiscal update last week committed billions of dollars in new spending on a new skilled worker program and infrastructure.<\/p>\n

Higher fuel prices and tariffs contributed to higher input costs but the rate of increase eased from a nine-month high in March.<\/p>\n

In response to higher costs, many firms chose to increase their own selling prices, S&P Global said. The prices charged index rose to a two-year high of 55.6, up from 54.4 in March.<\/p>\n

The S&P Global Canada Composite PMI Output Index rose to 49.9 in April from 47.6 in March as the decline in service sector activity was offset by an increase in manufacturing output. Data on Friday showed that the manufacturing sector expanded last month at the fastest pace in nearly four years as the war spurred stock building and added to inflation pressures. The S&P Global Canada Manufacturing PMI rose to 53.3 from 50.0 in March.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: People walk north on Bay St. as they head to work in Toronto\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32820,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[164,224,238,214,212,239,17,211,230,231,227,213,210,235,171,234,143,222,249,215,216,229,225,226,219,240,220,244,245,247,242,246,94,243,217,142,233,113,232,241,223,236,237,228,221,218,248],"class_list":{"0":"post-32819","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-alberta","9":"tag-arts-news","10":"tag-bc","11":"tag-breaking-news","12":"tag-breaking-news-video","13":"tag-british-columbia","14":"tag-canada","15":"tag-canada-news","16":"tag-canada-sports","17":"tag-canada-sports-news","18":"tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","19":"tag-canadian-breaking-news","20":"tag-canadian-news","21":"tag-economy","22":"tag-education","23":"tag-environment","24":"tag-federal-government","25":"tag-foreign-news","26":"tag-globe-and-mail","27":"tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","28":"tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","29":"tag-government","30":"tag-life-news","31":"tag-lifestyle","32":"tag-local-news","33":"tag-manitoba","34":"tag-national-news","35":"tag-new-brunswick","36":"tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","37":"tag-northwest-territories","38":"tag-nova-scotia","39":"tag-nunavut","40":"tag-ontario","41":"tag-pei","42":"tag-photos","43":"tag-political-news","44":"tag-political-opinion","45":"tag-politics","46":"tag-politics-news","47":"tag-quebec","48":"tag-sports-news","49":"tag-technology","50":"tag-travel","51":"tag-trudeau","52":"tag-us-news","53":"tag-world-news","54":"tag-yukon"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32819\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}