British Columbia saw an increase in wholesale trade in September – the first gain in four months – Statistics Canada announced November 20.
Sales grew 1.1% to $5.11 billion from $5.06 billion in August. This was driven by a 9.9% increase in building materials and supplies, which had total sales of $1.39 billion.
B.C.’s growth was below the Canadian average of 1.8% over the month. Nationwide, sales increased 1.8% to $54 billion.
“This could be enough to tilt monthly GDP to a 0.5% gain in September, but there’s still the important retail data to come,” said CIBC World Markets Economics’ Avery Shenfeld.
“If that holds, quarterly GDP would be roughly 2%, still a bit shy of the Bank of Canada’s projection, but leaving solid momentum for Q4.”
Retail data for September will be available November 25.
As in B.C., growth across Canada was led by building materials and supplies, up 5.5% to $8.10 billion. The biggest contributor to this growth was an 11.5% increase in electrical, plumbing, heating and air-conditioning equipment and supplies.
The biggest contributor to growth country-wide was Ontario, which saw a 1.5% jump to $26.4 billion. This is the province’s sixth consecutive monthly increase.
Year-over-year, B.C.’s wholesale trade was up 7.3%. This is lower than the national average of 8.1% over the same period. Newfoundland and Labrador had the biggest jump in sales, increasing 12.4%.
@EmmaHampelBIV
