2009

Canadian wholesale sales declined 3.4% to $42.8 billion in December, the largest month-over-month decrease since August 2003, according to Statistics Canada. In terms of the volume of sales, wholesale sales fell 3.6%.

Canadian wholesalers sell to both the domestic and international markets, and are active importers and exporters. The decline in sales reflected both lower export demand for Canadian goods, a significant part of which flows through wholesale markets, and weaker sales in Canada.

In December, five out of seven sectors, which account for about two-thirds of wholesale sales, reported declines. The machinery and electronic equipment sector declined 4.5% in December. The automotive products sector declined 3.4% …

Canadian sales declined 8.0% to $44.2 billion in December, reflecting almost equal decreases in both volume and price, according to Statistics Canada. This was the largest monthly percentage decline since the start of the current series in January 1992.
 
Constant dollar manufacturing sales, measured in 2002 prices, decreased by 4.4% in December.
 
By Sector
Declines were widespread in December, as sales fell in 20 of 21 manufacturing industries. The printing and related support activities industry recorded the only increase (+0.1%).
 
Manufacturing sales in the petroleum and coal products industry fell 18.4% to $4.4 billion. Sales have decreased by almost $3.8 billion …

The manufacturing sector contracted again in February, according to the latest Manufacturing ISM Report on Business from the Institute for Supply Management.
 
ISM reported: "Manufacturing continues to decline at a rapid rate … While production has slowed its rate of decline, employment continues to fall precipitously. Prices continue to decline, but price advantages are not sufficient to overcome manufacturers’ apparent loss of demand. Survey respondents appear generally pessimistic about recovery in 2009. Some express hope that the stimulus package will help their industry."
 
None of the 18 manufacturing industries in the survey reported growth.
 
A transportation equipment manufacturer said that customers are being cautious about ordering …

Real gross domestic product – the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the U.S. – decreased at an annual rate of 6.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008, (from the third quarter to the fourth quarter), according to preliminary estimates released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. 
 
These GDP estimates are based on more complete source data than were available for the advance estimates issued last month. In the advance estimates, the decrease in real GDP was 3.8 percent.
 
The decrease in real GDP in the fourth quarter primarily reflected negative contributions from exports, personal consumption expenditures, equipment and software, and residential fixed investment that were partly offset by a positive …