StatsCan: Real estate leasing an increasingly important part of Manitoba’s economy

However, the province experienced lower residential and non-residential building construction activity last year

StatsCan: Real estate leasing an increasingly important part of Manitoba’s economy
Newly released data from Statistics Canada showed that Manitoba’s economic output is gradually leaning more heavily upon real estate leasing and the services sector.

In the agency’s 2016 Gross Domestic Product by Industry report, Manitoba’s economic-growth performance last year saw “notable contributions from retail trade, transportation and warehousing, health-care services, lessors of real estate and food and drinking places.”

“Finance and insurance services increased 3.9 per cent on higher output from financial-investment services, banking services and insurance carriers,” the report noted, as quoted by the Winnipeg Free Press.

The most significant contributions came from goods output, which increased by 3.4 per cent. Much of this boost could be attributed to the 20-per-cent increase in engineering construction output from two major projects in the northern part of the province, Statistics Canada stated.

However, strong performance in other sectors like manufacturing output and crop production was offset by noticeable declines in residential and non-residential construction activity, the report added.

Overall, the province posted 2.4 per cent GDP growth in the previous year, up from 2.1 per cent in 2015 and 1.4 per cent in 2014. Only real estate hotspots British Columbia and Ontario managed to record stronger growth rates in 2016, at 3.7 per cent and 2.6 per cent, respectively.

 

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