Manufacturing sales in British Columbia grew 9% in the 12 months to September to a total of almost $3.7 billion, according to Statistics Canada data released November 14.
This growth rate was 1.7 percentage points higher than the national average of 7.3%.
Between August and September, B.C. saw manufacturing sales growth of 1.9%
The highest year-over-year growth was found in Quebec, up 11.5% to $12.9 billion.
Canada-wide, sales grew 2.1% over the month. This was the eighth gain in the past nine months, after seeing a 3.5% drop in August.
Nick Exarhos of CIBC World Markets Economics said the increase was higher than analysts’ expectations of a 1.3% gain.
“After lower than normal shutdowns this summer added some volatility to the figures, transportation equipment production registered a blistering 9.5% monthly gain,” Exarhos said. “Excluding that category, sales were up by a more muted 0.6%.
“All told a strong release, which should help the Canadian dollar, tempered to some extent by a strong American retail sales report.”
As of press time, the Canadian dollar was at 0.886 cents U.S., up from 0.878 earlier in the day.
