Canada's capacity utilization rates mark 1st decline in a year

By Ovunc Kutlu

ISTANBUL (AA) - Canada’s capacity utilization rate and the utilization rate in the manufacturing sector both fell in the third quarter, their first decline in a year, according to official data released on Friday.

The capacity utilization rate in the manufacturing sector fell by 1.6 percentage points to 76.6%, marking its first drop since the third quarter of 2021.

“Capacity utilization was down in 14 of the 21 major manufacturing industries, representing approximately 60% of gross domestic product in the manufacturing sector,” Statistics Canada said in a statement.

The manufacturing sector decline coincided with a drop in compensation of employees, which fell 0.4% in the third quarter of 2022, and also recorded the first decline since the second quarter of 2020, it added.

Canada’s capacity utilization rate, which is the percentage of production capacity being utilized and reflects overall growth and demand in the economy, also showed a slight decline in the third quarter from the previous three months.

The country’s industries operated at 82.6% of their production capacity in the July-September period, down 0.2 percentage points from the April-June period when it stood at 82.8%.

Although the rate was above the market expectation of 82.2%, it also marked its first decline since the third quarter of last year.​​​​