Canadian wholesale trade values revealed

Gains in several sectors are cancelled out

Wholesale trade in Canada was unchanged from December to January, according to a Statistics Canada report.

Whereas a Reuters poll had predicted a 0.2 per cent increase, in volume terms sales actually dropped by 0.2 per cent.

This was largely due to a fall in the sales of motor vehicles and parts, which slipped by 2.8 per cent: the first slump for three months. Indeed motor vehicle sales alone dropped by 4.9 per cent – a sizeable slip from what was a record month during December.

Despite this, however, four from seven subsectors enjoyed higher sales. Household goods increased by 0.5 per cent, while wholesale inventories rose by 0.3 per cent. The biggest increase however, came in the machinery, equipment and supplies subsector which leapt by 2.6 per cent.

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