Canadian corporate operating profits grew 3.9 billion Canadian dollars (about 2.9 billion U.S. dollars), or 3.6 percent, to 112.3 billion Canadian dollars in the fourth quarter of 2019, Statistics Canada said Tuesday.

It marked the third consecutive quarterly increase in operating profit. Compared with the fourth quarter of 2018, the operating profit in the last quarter of 2019 rose 4.8 percent.

The financial industries led the growth, followed by the non-financial industries which posted smaller growth.

Operating profits of financial corporations rose 10.6 percent to 37.2 billion Canadian dollars in the fourth quarter while operating profits for local credit unions increased 21.6 percent to 1.3 billion Canadian dollars.