Canadian manufacturing sales continued their turbulent trend in March, rising once again following a decline in February and showing unexpectedly strong growth in January. PHOTO courtesy Universal Robots.
Total manufacturing sales in Canada increased 0.7% in March, according to an advance estimate provided by Statistics Canada.
The largest increase was in the transportation equipment industry.
If the advance estimate proves accurate it will continue the turbulent trend for the Canadian economy at the start of 2023. Canadian manufacturing sales declined 3.6% to $71.5 billion in February, following a larger than expected increase in January that hit 4.5%. The return to positive numbers in March would also be one more indicator that the Canadian economy is not heading into recession as some economic forecasters had predicted.
Statistics Canada provides advance estimate of sales in the manufacturing sector to stay on top of the rapidly evolving economic situation. This estimate was calculated based on a weighted response rate of 73.1%. The average final response rate for the survey over the previous 12 months has been 94.6%.
As Statistics Canada continues to collect data for the March reference month, this early indicator is subject to a higher revision rate than its regular monthly release.
