Canada Producer Prices Climb 0.8% in March

Canadian producer prices rose for a seventh straight month in March on higher vehicle and metal costs. The country's raw-materials price index declined on lower prices for energy products.

Canada's industrial product price index rose 0.8% in March, Statistics Canada said Friday. Expectations were for a 0.3% gain, according to economists at Royal Bank of Canada.

The producer price index measures the price manufacturers in Canada receive once their goods leave the plant, and does not reflect the final prices consumers pay for goods on store shelves.

Of the 21 commodity groups tracked for the index, all but one recorded a month-over-month increase.

On a year-over-year basis, producer prices rose 5.1%, which represents the fastest one-year gain since November, 2011.

Prices for raw materials used by manufacturers in March fell 1.6%, or a deeper decrease than the 0.5% anticipated by traders.

On a 12-month basis, raw materials prices rose 16.6%.

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

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 28, 2017 08:45 ET (12:45 GMT)