The Monthly
Survey of Manufacturing, published by Statistics Canada on Monday, revealed
that Canadian manufacturing sales jumped by 0.7 per cent m-o-m in February to
CAD71.61 billion, following an unrevised
0.2 per cent m-o-m increase in January. That represented the largest monthly advance in manufacturing sales
since November 2023 (+1.4 per cent m-o-m).
Economists
had predicted a gain of 0.7 per cent m-o-m for February.
According to
the survey, 13 of 21 industries posted advances in sales in February, led by the electrical
equipment, appliance and component (+12.6 per cent m-o-m), furniture and
related product (+6.8 per cent m-o-m), petroleum and coal product (+4.3 per
cent m-o-m), and textile mills (+3.7 per cent m-o-m) subsectors. On the contrary, the apparel manufacturing (-11.5 per cent
m-o-m), chemical (-5.5 per cent m-o-m), and leather and allied product (-4.3
per cent m-o-m) industries posted the biggest decreases.
Overall, sales
of non-durable goods increased 0.5 per cent m-o-m in February, while sales of
durable goods surged 1.0 per cent m-o-m.
Broken down by
province/territory, manufacturing sales increased in 5 administrative divisions
in February, driven by Quebec (+3.0 per cent m-o-m) and Alberta (+4.1 per cent
m-o-m). Meanwhile, sales in Saskatchewan (-12.8 per cent m-o-m) demonstrated the
largest decline.
In y-o-y terms,
manufacturing sales edged up 0.1
per cent in February.