Canada wholesale trade sales for September 2020
- Canada wholesale trade sales 0.9% vs. 0.4% estimate
- prior month was at 0.3%
- inventories +0.7%. It was the 2nd straight positive month after 3 consecutive months of declining inventories
- inventory to sales ratio was unchanged at 1.37
- for subsectors recorded higher sales with the food beverage and tobacco in the personal and household goods subsectors contributing the most
- after falling by -2.8% in August, sales in food, beverage and tobacco increased by 3.6%. The gain was almost entirely due to 84.2% gain in the food industry
- personal and household goods subsectors increased 3.4% after rising in for the previous 6 months. The increase reflects a 7.2% growth in pharmaceutical and pharmacy's supplies industry
- sales grew for the 5th consecutive month in the motor vehicle and motor vehicle parts subsector, increasing by 1.1%. However they still remain down -6% from pre-Covid levels
- total sales for the 1st 9 months of 2020 are 3.3% lower than the same period of 2019
Better-than-expected wholesale sales as data moves back toward traditional levels seen prior to the Covid spikes (see chart below).
