Canadian Wholesale Sales Decline in September

TORONTO – Wholesale transactions in Canada dropped in September following two months of solid increases as sales of food, personal and household goods all declined.

Wholesale transactions fell 1.2% on a seasonally adjusted basis in September to 62 billion Canadian dollars ($48.4 billion), Statistics Canada said Tuesday. Market expectations were for a 0.6% increase, according to economists at Royal Bank of Canada.

In volume terms, September wholesale transactions declined 1.1% from the previous month.

On a 12-month basis, nominal wholesale trade in Canada climbed 9.9%.

Wholesale trade is the largest component of Canada's services sector -- which in turn accounts for two-thirds of the country's economic output. Wholesalers tend to move merchandise in large quantities to institutional, industrial and retail clients. Markets tend to overlook the wholesale-trade data, even though it has a bigger weight in gross domestic product than the more closely watched retail sales. September retail sales figures are set for release on Thursday.

Write to David George-Cosh at david.george-cosh@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 21, 2017 09:08 ET (14:08 GMT)