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July 15, 2024WHOLESALE TRADE, MAY 2024 NOTE
Starting with the March 2023 reference month, petroleum products data are available within Statistics Canada's data on wholesale trade. This distorts year-to-date comparisons as well as the national inventory to sales ratio. The effect causes data for oil-producing regions to increase more rapidly than in other provinces.
Monthly (seasonally adjusted, May 2024 vs April 2024)
Nova Scotia wholesale trade increased 0.6% to $1.38 billion. National wholesale trade fell 1.4% to $121.06 billion in May. Six provinces reported declines with Alberta leading with the largest decline, while Newfoundland and Labrador reproted the largest growth.
Year-over-year (seasonally adjusted, May 2024 vs May 2023)
Nova Scotia wholesale trade increased 9.5%. Canada's wholesale trade decreased 6.7%. All provinces, except Nova Scotia and New Brunswick reported year over year declines in wholesale trade. Saskatchewan and Manitoba reported the largest declines from May 2023 to May 2024.
Year-to-date (January-May 2024 vs January-May 2023)
Nova Scotia wholesale trade increased 10.7% in the first five months of 2024 compared to the same period of 2023. Canada's wholesale trade increased 8.6%. Eight provinces reported year over year increases in wholesale trade. Alberta and New Brunswick reported the largest gains. Prince Edward Island and Saskatchewan reported the only declines.
The largest dollar contributions to Nova Scotia's wholesale trade came from food and beverage wholesalers and building materials wholesalers.
The largest percentage gain in Nova Scotia's wholesale trade was for food, beverage. There were declines in miscellaneous wholesale trade and motor vehicle and parts.
TRENDS
Over the past year, there has been high volatility in Nova Scotia's wholesale trade with large declines and recoveries. Canada reported a very large increase as the data series was changed to include petroleum products.
After the break in the data series with the inclusion of petroleum products in March 2023, wholesale inventories trended down as a share of sales, but there was a recovery at the end of 2023. In recent months, wholesale inventories as a share of sales are trending down again. The wholesale inventories as a share of sales were 1.16 in May 2024.
Source: Statistics Canada. Table 20-10-0074-01 Wholesale trade, sales (x 1,000); Table 20-10-0076-01 Wholesale trade, inventories (x 1,000)
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