Following an eight-month streak of increases, Canada’s real gross domestic product (GDP) was essentially flat in July, driven down by a decline in oil and gas extraction, Statistics Canada said on Friday. The mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction sector contracted 1.2 percent in July, dragged down for the most part by a 1.8-percent drop in the oil and gas extraction industry. Non-conventional oil extraction declined by 3.0 percent, for the fourth time in five months, Statistics Canada said. Conventional oil and gas extraction contracted for the first time in five months—by 0.8 percent—on the back of lower crude oil extraction. Support activities for mining, oil and gas extraction declined for the third month in a row, this time by 1.2 percent, as support activities for oil and gas extraction contracted on lower drilling services. The drop in mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction was the biggest […]