(OTTAWA) Manufacturing sales fell 2.0% in August to $70.4 billion as a result of a pullback in the petroleum and coal sector due to lower prices and volumes, a reported Friday Statistics Canada.
Posted at 11:31 a.m.
It was the fourth consecutive monthly decline in sales, the federal agency said.
Sales of petroleum and coal products fell 3.9% to 9.9 million in August, while those of chemical manufacturers fell 4.5% to 5.6 billion.
Overall sales, expressed in constant dollars, fell 1.7% in August, reflecting a drop in the volume of goods sold.
In a separate report, Statistics Canada said wholesale sales rose 1.4% in August to a new high of $81.3 billion, fueled by the miscellaneous subsector, whose sales rose by 3.9% to 12.8 billion.
Expressed in constant dollars, wholesale sales rose 1.2% in August.