Wholesale trade up marginally in Canada

Canadian wholesale sales increased 1.5 percent to $46.3 billion in September, based largely on the automotive sector, Statistics Canada reported Thursday.

Following the automotive sector’s 6 percent monthly gain to $7.4 billion, the machinery and electronic equipment sector was second in terms of growth, up 1.4 percent to $10.3 billion, StatsCan said.

Excluding the automotive sector, wholesale sales rose by 0.6 percent.

Among decliners, farm products were down 0.7 percent to $475 million and wholesale clothing sales dipped 1.1 percent to $813 million, the report said.

Regionally, all of the Atlantic provinces except Newfoundland/Labrador posted higher sales in September, while every western province reported lower sales in the month, the agency said.