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September 13, 2024WHOLESALE TRADE, JULY 2024 Monthly (seasonally adjusted, July 2024 vs June 2024)
Nova Scotia wholesale trade increased 1.2% to $1.35 billion. National wholesale trade rose 0.9% to $119.14 billion. 7 of 10 provinces reported gains led by Manitoba. Alberta reported the largest decline.
Year-over-year (seasonally adjusted, July 2024 vs July 2023)
Nova Scotia wholesale trade increased 14.3%. Canada's wholesale trade declined 3.3%. 6 of 10 provinces reported lower year-over-year wholesale trade with Saskatchewan reporting the steepest decline. New Brunswick reported the fastest year-over-year rise in wholesale trade (followed by Nova Scotia).
Year-to-date (January-July 2024 vs January-July 2023)
Nova Scotia wholesale trade increased 11.6% in the first seven months of 2024 compared to the same period of 2023. Canada's wholesale trade increased 9.2%. 7 of 10 provinces reported year-to-date increases in wholesale trade. Alberta reported the largest gains. Saskatchewan, Prince Edward Island and Ontario reported year-to-date declines.
TRENDS
In 2024, volatility in Nova Scotia's wholesale trade has smoothed out to a rising trend. Canada reported a very large increase as the data series was changed to include petroleum products, but has plateaued in recent months.
After the break in the data series with the inclusion of petroleum products in March 2023, wholesale inventories trended down. In recent months, wholesale inventories as a share of sales have been volatile around a stable trend, with a value of 1.16 in July 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.
Due to suppression of data in food and beverage wholesalers for Nova Scotia (the largest category), year-to-date results by category will not be available.
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)