Canada Wholesale Transactions Climb 0.7% in November

Wholesale transactions in Canada rose in November, although short of expectations, on robust sales of food and automotive products.

Wholesale transactions climbed 0.7% on a seasonally adjusted basis in November to 63.55 billion Canadian dollars ($51.01 billion), Statistics Canada said Monday. Market expectations were for a 1% advance.

That marks a slowdown after the previous month's upwardly revised 1.6% advance.

In volume, or price-adjusted, terms, November wholesale transactions rose 0.5% from the previous month.

On a 12-month basis, wholesale trade in Canada increased 10.8% on nominal terms.

Wholesale trade is the largest component of Canada's services sector, which in turn accounts for two-thirds of the country's economic output. Wholesalers connect the farmers or manufacturers that produce goods with the companies or public institutions that need them, such as the factories buying inputs for their industrial processes or retailers buying finished goods to sell to Canadian households. They also import goods from other countries and redistribute them within Canada.

Markets tend to overlook the wholesale-trade data, even though it has a bigger weight in gross domestic product than the more closely watched retail sales.

November's retail-sales report is scheduled for release Thursday.

Monday's gain in wholesale transactions come on the heels of a stellar November surge in factory shipments to a record level.

Write to Paul Vieira at Paul.Vieira@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 22, 2018 09:22 ET (14:22 GMT)