Net income of Canadian corporations rises in Q4 2020

OTTAWA, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- Canada's corporations reported a rise of 7.9 percent before taxes in net income to 82.5 billion Canadian dollars in the fourth quarter of 2020, according to Statistics Canada on Wednesday.

Operating revenues rose 1.8 percent to 1,080.4 billion Canadian dollars in the fourth quarter.

The net income before taxes in the non-financial sector jumped 12.8 percent to 53.2 billion Canadian dollars in the fourth quarter while the net income before taxes in oil and gas extraction and support activities increased 3.7 billion Canadian dollars, up 56.5.

The increase is attributable to higher oil prices and volumes for the quarter. Nonetheless, the industry reported losses for a fourth consecutive quarter, recording a loss of 2.9 billion Canadian dollars in the fourth quarter. It was an improvement from the loss of 6.6 billion Canadian dollars in the third quarter.

The net income before taxes in the manufacturing industry edged down 0.9 percent to 12.6 billion Canadian dollars in the fourth quarter while the net income before taxes in the retail trade sector decreased 17.8 percent to 3.6 billion Canadian dollars.

The net income before taxes for financial corporations edged up 0.1 percent to 29.4 billion Canadian dollars in the fourth quarter.

Mostly offsetting those increases in net income before taxes for the financial sector were the property and casualty insurance carriers that decreased 1.4 billion Canadian dollars, or down 50.7 percent in the fourth quarter.

One Canadian dollar is about 0.8 U.S. dollar.