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After growing by 1.6% in March, Quebec’s economy contracted by 0.2% in April, as the third wave of COVID-19 pollution appeared in the statistics of the Quebec Institute.

Thus, the county’s real GDP is accumulating 8.2% for the first four months of 2021, compared to the same period last year. This exceptional growth is attributed to the historical declines recorded in March and April 2020, with the arrival of the pandemic, however, ISQ stated.

The drop in GDP in April was attributed to a 0.9% drop in commodity industries output after a 2.1% rise and mining, quarrying and oil and gas extraction (-2.9%), the institute said.

For its part, service-producing industries posted a gain of 0.1%, which is a slowdown after increases of 1.5% and 1.4%, respectively, in February and March.

Among the sectors that contribute most to this disparity are health care and social assistance (+1.0%) and retail trade (- 1.1%).

According to data released at the end of June by Statistics Canada, the Canadian economy, for its part, recorded a decline of 0.3% in April. Industries producing goods advanced 0.5% while those producing services decreased 0.6%. In the first four months of the year, Canadian GDP showed a growth of 4.9% compared to the same period in 2020.