Manufacturing sales in British Columbia edged up 1.2% to $3.36 billion in March, according to Statistics Canada data released this morning.
Across Canada, sales dipped 0.3% to $49.5 billion – the third decline in four months. This for the most part reflects lower sales in the petroleum and coal product and chemical manufacturing industries.
Sales declined in 10 of 21 industries across the country, which represents approximately one-third of manufacturing.
Year-over-year, manufacturing sales in B.C. increased by 2.6%, compared with a nationwide decrease of 1.0%.
Manufacturing sales in Newfoundland and Labrador were up 30.7% compared with February, but were down 9.3% overall for the year.
Other provinces with increases in March were Prince Edward Island (7.6%) and Quebec (0.2%).
The provinces with the biggest drops for the month were New Brunswick (9.5%) and Saskatchewan (7.7%).
