Ottawa (AFP) - Canada's gross domestic product rose 2.9 percent in the third quarter, beating analysts' expectations, Statistics Canada announced Tuesday.

The fifth consecutive increase in GDP was mainly due to the growth in exports of crude oil and bitumen (+2.1 percent) and a large build-up of inventories for the second consecutive quarter.

On the other hand, the Canadian Institute of Statistics reduced the growth rate of the Canadian economy slightly for the second quarter, from 3.3 to 3.2 percent.

Inventories in the manufacturing and wholesale and retail sectors rose to a "record level," according to Statistics Canada.

However, this increase was decreased due to the decline in investment in real estate for the second quarter in a row and the decline in household spending, which led to an increase in the abundance of their returns.

Professionally, the wages of Canadian workers continued to rise in the third quarter, but at a slower pace, to be the lowest increase recorded since mid-2020, according to the government institute.

"The strong growth recorded in the third quarter does not, in fact, reflect the underlying strength of the Canadian economy," said Royce Mendez, an analyst at Desjardins Bank, noting that "a large part of the increase comes from external demand and from volatile categories."

Economist Nathan Janzen said, "Some indications indicate that inflationary pressures have begun to recede and (...) a slowdown in domestic demand, which means that the Bank of Canada may soon reach the end of its current cycle by raising current interest rates."

Many analysts agree that the Bank of Canada should not raise the key interest rate next week by more than 0.25 points.

At the end of October, he raised interest rates for the sixth time in a row, from 0.25 percent in January to 3.75 percent, with the aim of slowing inflation.

The inflation rate remained stable in October at 6.9 percent, after reaching a record peak of 8.1 percent in June.

The government said in its latest budget update that GDP growth, estimated at 3.9 percent for 2022, is expected to drop to 0.7 percent in 2023.