Economic activity remained essentially unchanged in April, after growing 0.3% in March and 0.4% in February, Statistics Canada reported today.

Significant drops in wholesale trade, oil-and-gas exploration, and motor vehicle manufacturing dampened growth in April — excluding these declines, the Canadian economy expanded by 0.3%.

Both the goods-and service-producing industries stood still while utilities had robust growth in April.

Gains were also registered in oil-and-gas extraction, construction, retail trade and the financial sector.

In addition to significant setbacks in wholesale trade, oil-and-gas exploration and motor vehicle manufacturing, declines were also recorded in metal ores mining and the accommodation and food services sector.

Wholesale trade fell 1.9% in April, while the energy sector moved forward 0.6% and oil-and-gas exploration activities, down 15.8%, recorded its second straight double-digit decrease.