Canadian Wholesale Sales Decline in September

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)