Canadian manufacturing sales continued to climb in October, yet another sign that the economy is gaining steam and will continue to grow in 2014.
According to the latest figures from Statistics Canada. Canadian manufacturing sales jumped 1.0 per cent in October 2013, building on a 0.6 per cent increase in September 2013. According to a report from RBC Economics Research, “markets had expected a 0.3 per cent drop…the unexpected jump in manufacturing sales volumes in October left the measure already an annualized 6.3 per cent above its third quarter 2013 average, notes RBC economist Nathan Janzen, commenting on the latest figures.
The year-over-year rate of growth in sales volumes returned to positive in October for the first time since February, and a solid reading in the earlier-released November RBC Manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) suggested that recent momentum in the sector is being sustained in the near term.
“The monthly pickup in sales volumes suggests that manufacturing output likely provided another solid support to monthly GDP growth in October following a 1.1 per cent increase in the manufacturing component of GDP in September. Reports on wholesale and retail sales later this week will provide further clarity on the monthly pace of growth in the services sector although the gain in manufacturing volumes reported today pointed to some early upside risk to our prior monitoring that GDP growth slowed to 0.1 per cent in October following stronger 0.3 per cent gains in each of September and August. In turn, this suggests some modest upside risk to our forecast that fourth-quarter 2013 GDP growth rose 2.4 per cent, which would be down only slightly from a 2.7% jump in the third quarter of 2013.”
