Canada Building Permits Rise for 2nd Month

The value of building permits in Canada went up 4 percent from a month earlier to CAD 9.2 billion in January 2020, following an upwardly revised 9.9 percent gain in the previous month. The value of residential permits jumped 12.7 percent to CAD 5.8 billion, driven by multi-family dwellings (17.1 percent to CAD 3.4 billion), largely due to multiple projects in the CMA of Vancouver; and single-family dwellings (7 percent to CAD 2.4 billion), boosted by housing developments in Ontario and Quebec. On the other hand, the value of permits of the non-residential sector dropped 7.8 percent to CAD 3.5 billion, mainly due to institutional permits (-30.5 percent to CAD 732 million) and commercial (-0.8 percent to CAD); while industrial permits rose (6.8 percent to CAD 682 million).