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October 16, 2023WHOLESALE TRADE, AUGUST 2023 NOTE
Starting with the March 2023 reference month, petroleum products data are available within Statistics Canada's data on wholesale trade. This distorts year-over-year and 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, August 2023 vs July 2023)
Nova Scotia wholesale trade increased 9.0% to $1.35 billion. National wholesale trade increased 4.1% to $130.35 billion in August. Eight provinces reported an increase, Prince Edward Island and Manitoba reported the only declines. Saskatchewan reported the fastest growth.
Year-over-year (seasonally adjusted, August 2023 vs August 2022)
Nova Scotia wholesale trade increased 15.8% - second slowest gain among provinces. Canada's wholesale trade increased 59.0% with the recent inclusion of petroleum, oil seeds and grains in the data series. All ten provinces reported year over year increases in wholesale trade. Alberta, Manitoba and Newfoundland and Labrador reported the largest gains.
Year-to-date (January-August 2023 vs January-August 2022)
Nova Scotia wholesale trade increased 7.6% in the first eight months of the year - the second slowest gain among provinces. Canada's wholesale trade increased 44.4% (including petroleum, oil seeds and grains). All provinces reported year to date increases. The prairie provinces along with Newfoundland and Labrador reported the largest year-to-date gains in wholesale trade.
The largest dollar contributions to Nova Scotia's to wholesale trade came from food and beverage wholesalers as well as building materials wholesalers, though both of these values were down year-to-date.
The largest percentage gains in Nova Scotia's to wholesale trade were among motor vehicle and parts wholesalers.
TRENDS
Over the past year, there has been high volatility in Nova Scotia's wholesale trade with several large declines and recoveries. Canada reported a very large increase as the data series was changed to include petroleum products.
Noting the break in the data series with the inclusion of petroleum products in March 2023, wholesale inventories have trended down as a share of sales in recent months.
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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