Alberta’s wholesale sales were trending lower in January pre-coronavirus fears, according to a report by Statistics Canada.
The federal agency reported on Monday that sales of $6.5 billion in January were down 1.1 per cent from December and off by 3.9 per cent from a year ago.
Nationally, wholesale sales rose by 1.8 per cent to 65.2 billion.
“While all subsectors reported higher sales, gains were concentrated in the motor vehicle and motor vehicle parts and accessories and the miscellaneous subsectors. In volume terms, sales grew 1.7 per cent,” said StatsCan.
“Sales in the motor vehicle and motor vehicle parts subsector grew 3.0 per cent to $11.3 billion in January. The bulk of this growth (about 80 per cent) is attributable to the motor vehicle industry, up 3.0 per cent to $9.1 billion. This was a second consecutive increase for both the subsector and the industry.”
Year-over-year wholesale sales were up by 3.2 per cent.
The federal agency said wholesale inventories edged up 0.1 per cent to $92.1 billion in January.
“For the month, higher inventories in five subsectors were almost entirely offset by lower inventories in the miscellaneous (-2.6 per cent to $11.5 billion) and the machinery, equipment and supplies (-0.5 per cent to $26.7 billion) subsectors. The highest inventories were recorded in the personal and household goods subsector (+1.4 per cent to $16.4 billion) and the motor vehicle and motor vehicle parts and accessories subsector (+1.3 per cent to $13.6 billion).”
StatsCan said the inventory-to-sales ratio declined from 1.44 in December to 1.41 in January, the lowest ratio since April 2019. The inventory-to-sales ratio is a measure of the time (in months) required to exhaust inventories if sales were to remain at their current level.
