Canada Industrial Capacity Rises to 85% in 3Q

Canada's industrial capacity utilization rose in third quarter, remaining at a near-decade high, mainly driven by increased activity in the construction and electricity sectors.

Overall, industries in Canada operated at 85% of their production capacity in the third quarter, a 0.7-percentage-point rise from a revised 84.3% level in the previous three-month period, Statistics Canada said Friday. Market expectations for this indicator weren't immediately available.

The previous estimate in the second quarter indicated Canadian industrial sectors were operating at 85% capacity. The report marked the fifth consecutive quarterly rise in capacity utilization.

The capacity-utilization rate represents a ratio of industry's actual output to its estimated potential output. It's also a gauge of how much slack, or spare capacity, there is in the economy.

The reading comes a week after data measuring the country's gross domestic product indicated Canada's economic growth slowed markedly in the third quarter, to 1.7% on an annualized basis after expanding 4.3% in the second quarter.

The Bank of Canada said the economy is operating close to or at capacity. Still, this week the central bank kept its benchmark rate unchanged at 1%, and said it would remain cautious in rate-policy making due to a series of uncertainties the economy faces, related to U.S. trade policy and the impact of new mortgage-financing rules.

Write to Paul Vieira at paul.vieira@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 08, 2017 09:22 ET (14:22 GMT)