2008

Source: Statistics Canada

After holding steady in October, manufacturing sales increased by 1.1% in November. Sales improved by $573 million to $50.6 billion. Almost all of the increase in manufacturing was the result of a surge in petroleum and coal product sales during the month, which benefited from sharply rising prices.

Using constant dollars, the volume of manufacturing sales remained largely unchanged in November, edging down 0.1% compared with October. Rising prices played a significant role in increasing the total value of sales, as the Industrial Product Price Index rose for the first time in seven months (+0.6%). Constant dollar measurements take price fluctuations into account, providing an indicator of the volume …

Industrial production was unchanged in December.
 
For the fourth quarter, output fell 1% (annual rate), the first quarterly decrease since the fourth quarter of 2006. At 114% of its 2002 average, total industrial production in December was 1.5% above its year-earlier level.
 
Output in the manufacturing sector was unchanged in December. The output of utilities decreased 0.2% in December as a result of a decline at gas utilities; the output at mines edged up 0.1% after an increase of 1% in November.
 
Capacity utilization for total industry posted a small decrease in December, to 81.4%, a rate slightly below its year-earlier level but 0.4 percentage point above its 1972-2006 …

The Canadian economy is firing on all cylinders except one,”with manufacturing in the midst of a year-long recession, according to a new Manufacturers Alliance/MAPI report, available at www.mapi.net.

In “Review of the Canadian Economy, 2007-2008,” Jeremy A. Leonard, MAPI economic consultant, writes that the Canadian economy is growing at or above potential, and labor markets are as tight as they have been in a generation. However, manufacturing is suffering from the rapidly strengthening Canadian dollar and slower-than-expected growth in the U.S.

Real gross domestic product grew by 2.9 percent at an annualized rate in the third quarter 2007 but is expected to decelerate to the 2-percent range before …