Canada: Manufacturing sales decline 1.3% in December vs +0.2% expected

"Manufacturing sales declined for the third consecutive month, down 1.3% to $56.4 billion in December on lower sales of petroleum and coal products," Statistics Canada reported today.

Key takeaways from the press release

• Excluding this industry, manufacturing sales declined 0.3%.
• Sales fell in 12 of 21 industries, representing 72.7% of manufacturing sales.
• Manufacturing sales in volume terms were also down, declining 1.2% in December.
• Inventory levels increased 0.3% to $84.8 billion in December. 
• The unadjusted capacity utilization rate for the manufacturing sector decreased from 79.4% in November to 75.9% in December.