Canadian housing starts slipped by 10% in July compared with the previous month, which had produced the strongest figures in ten years, data from the national housing agency showed on Wednesday.

The seasonally adjusted annualized rate of housing starts fell to 254,966 units in July from a revised 283,498 units in June, the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) said.

Economists in a Reuters poll had expected starts to fall to 240,000 in July.

(Reporting by David Ljunggren; editing by Christina Fincher)