Canada Factory Sales Rise 1.1% in May

Canadian factory sales rose for a third straight month in May on broad-based gains led by the automotive and chemical sectors.

Factory shipments increased 1.1% in May on a seasonally adjusted basis to a record 54.59 billion Canadian dollars ($42.67 billion), Statistics Canada said Wednesday. That beat market expectations for a 0.8% increase, according to economists at Royal Bank of Canada.

On a volume, or price-adjusted, basis, factory sales also rose 1.1%.

The previous month's data were revised downward, and now indicate manufacturing shipments climbed 0.4% in April as opposed to the earlier estimate of a 1.1% rise. New sales figures from respondents, especially from the food-processing component, prompted the downgrade.

On a 12-month basis, manufacturing shipments rose 8.7%, or the best one-year performance since July, 2014. That's around the same time commodity prices began a broad-based, swift descent.

Write to Paul Vieira at paul.vieira@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

July 19, 2017 08:45 ET (12:45 GMT)