Correction to Canada Wholesale Sales Article

Wholesale sales in Canada declined in February after four straight monthly gains, led by lower sales in personal and household goods, and food and beverages.

Wholesale sales fell 0.2% on a seasonally-adjusted basis in February to 58.86 billion Canadian dollars ($43.58 billion), Statistics Canada said Monday. Market expectations were for a steeper 0.9% decrease, according to econom ists at Royal Bank of Canada.

In volume terms,February wholesale sales declined 0.4% from the previous month.

"We're calling for some slippage" in what's been a string of positive economic data, economists at CIBC World Markets said in a note to clients. "Wholesale trade could be a first taste of what's ahead.

On a 12-month basis, wholesale trade increased 6.6%.

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.

Meanwhile, wholesale inventories rose 0.2% to C$74.11 billion, and rose 2.2% on a 12-month basis. A rise in inventories tends to signal production exceeded consumption in the month.

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

Corrections & Amplifications

This story was corrected at 12:56 p.m. ET because it misstated the month as January, intead of February, in the third paragraph.

In volume terms, February Canada wholesale sales declined 0.4% from the previous month. "Canada Wholesale Sales Drop 0.2% in February," at 9:06 a.m. EDT, misstated the month as January in the third paragraph. (April 24, 2017)

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 24, 2017 13:07 ET (17:07 GMT)