The Canadian economy advanced 0.5 percent month-over-month in March of 2019, rebounding from an upwardly revised 0.2 percent drop in February and beating market expectations of a 0.4 percent expansion. It was the largest increase since November 2017, as output rebounded for manufacturing (0.8 percent vs -0.7 percent in February), as both durable (1.3 percent vs -0.9 percent) and non-durable manufacturing (0.6 percent vs -0.7 percent) rose; mining, quarrying and oil and gas extraction (2.0 percent vs -1.6 percent), driven by oil and gas extraction (3.3 percent); finance & insurance (0.9 percent vs -0.7 percent) and for transportation & warehousing (1.4 percent vs -1.3 percent). In addition, the wholesale & retail trade was up for the third consecutive (1.1 percent vs 0.2 percent). On the other hand, the utilities sector contracted (-1.8 percent vs 2.0 percent), as temperatures across the country returned to more seasonal levels. Leading Economic Index in Canada averaged 0.20 percent from 1997 until 2019, reaching an all time high of 1.20 percent in September of 2003 and a record low of -1.40 percent in December of 2008.
Leading Economic Index in Canada is expected to be 0.20 percent by the end of this quarter, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts expectations. Looking forward, we estimate Leading Economic Index in Canada to stand at 0.10 in 12 months time. In the long-term, the Canada GDP MoM is projected to trend around 0.20 percent in 2020, according to our econometric models.