OTTAWA, Feb. 29 -- Canada's real gross domestic product (GDP) by industry increased 1.2 percent in 2023, the slowest growth rate since 2016 aside from the contraction recorded in 2020, Statistics Canada said Thursday.

Despite strong growth in the first quarter of 2023, several factors including higher interest rates, inflation, forest fires and drought conditions as well as strikes weighed on overall economic growth in the year, the national statistical agency said.

Value added in services-producing industries continued to expand in 2023, although at the slowest pace in three years. The public sector, transportation and warehousing and professional, scientific and technical services drove the gain, the agency said.

According to the agency, goods-producing industries contracted as almost all sectors within this grouping posted declines. The mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction sector was the exception, with an increase in 2023 driven by both the oil and gas extraction and the mining subsectors.

Last month, Statistics Canada said the annual economic growth was expected to grow 1.5 percent with advance estimate.

  - Xinhua