Canada's real gross domestic product grew by a disappointing 0.5 per cent in the second quarter of this year, according to figures released Tuesday by Statistics Canada, slowed by weaker exports and slumping auto sales and goods and services spending.

BNN's Michael Kane said the figure, representing the output of the entire Canadian economy adjusted for inflation, was lower than forecasters had expected but said the news was not all bad.

"Actually spending on machinery and equipment was up 8.7 per cent; spending on industrial goods and materials was up 4.9 per cent and travel spending was up 6.8 per cent," he told CTV's Canada AM.

"So when you look past the headline number, you see that the domestic economy itself is actually pretty strong."

The GDP's annualized rate grew two per cent in the second quarter, after expanding by 5.8 in the first quarter.

That compared with a 1.6 per cent second-quarter rate of increase in the U.S. economy.

While the amount of exports and imports both rose, growth in imports outpaced growth in exports for the second consecutive quarter.

"The problem in the overall number is that exports were weak, because of reduced demand from the United States, our principal trading partner," Kane said.

"The export picture is weak and that is going to be what will characterizes our gross domestic product for perhaps many, many quarters to come."

Consumer expenditures on goods and services, as well as business investment on residential structures, grew at a slower rate than in the first quarter.

The output of the goods-producing industries rose 1.9 per cent, while the services industries edged up only 0.1 -- the third straight quarter in which the output of goods-producing industries has significantly outpaced that of the services industries.

Ian Lee, a professor at Carleton University's Sprott School of Business, said slower growth has become the "new normal" for the Canadian economy, largely because of the slump in the U.S.

"We're one of the most export-intensive countries in the world … and about three-quarters of the stuff that we export goes to the United States," Lee told CTV's News Channel. "And the United States right now is – to put it bluntly – in very bad shape."

"I don't think that we're going to go into a ‘double dip' recession … but we're not going to go back to the good old glory days of four or five or six per cent economic growth."

The second-quarter increase in GDP was led by mining, particularly in the oil and natural gas sector. Manufacturing also contributed to the gain, along with the public sectors (health, education, and public administration). Declines in the home resale market and in retail and wholesale trade slowed growth.

Expenditures on new and used motor vehicles fell 2.9 per cent and households spent less on electricity and natural gas for a second consecutive quarter, Statistics Canada reported.

Spending on furniture, furnishings, and household equipment and maintenance edged up 0.1 per cent. Consumers had increased their expenditures on this category of goods and services by at least 1.0 per cent in each of the three previous quarters.

Growth in spending by Canadians travelling abroad, together with purchased transportation, contributed significantly to the increase in consumer spending on services.