Canada building permits fall for second month in February

OTTAWA (Reuters) - The value of Canadian building permits fell in February, declining for the second month in a row on lower construction intentions in central Canada and oil-rich Alberta, data from Statistics Canada showed on Thursday.

The value of permits issued in the month fell 0.9 percent to C$6.11 billion ($4.89 billion), short of economists' forecasts for a rebound of 5 percent.

The decline was driven by a 5.4 percent drop in the value of permits in the non-residential sector.

The value of residential permits rose 1.5 percent amid a 20.7 percent surge in multi-family building permits. Construction plans for single-family homes dropped by 9.6 percent.

By province, Quebec saw the largest decline in building permits overall, followed by Ontario and Alberta. In Alberta, which is heavily tied to the energy industry and vulnerable to the drop in oil prices, the decrease came mostly from single-family and commercial buildings.

($1 = $1.25 Canadian)

(Reporting by Leah Schnurr; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)