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April 15, 2024WHOLESALE TRADE, FEBRUARY 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-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, February 2024 vs January 2024)
Nova Scotia wholesale trade increased 0.6% to $1.35 billion. National wholesale trade increased 2.3% to $120.0 billion in February. Eight provinces reported an increase, led by Prince Edward Island. Saskatchewan reported the largest decline.
Year-over-year (seasonally adjusted, February 2024 vs February 2023)
Nova Scotia wholesale trade increased 16.2%. Canada's wholesale trade increased 39.7% with the recent inclusion of petroleum, oil seeds and grains in the data series. All provinces reported year over year increases in wholesale trade. Alberta and Newfoundland and Labrador reported the largest gains. Prince Edward Island reported the smallest gain.
Year-to-date (January-February 2024 vs January-February 2023)
Nova Scotia wholesale trade increased 12.7% in the first two months of 2024 compared to the same period of 2023. Canada's wholesale trade increased 37.4% with the recent inclusion of petroleum, oil seeds and grains in the data series. All provinces reported year over year increases in wholesale trade. Alberta and Newfoundland and Labrador reported the largest gains. Saskatchewan reported the smallest gain.
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 motor vehicle and parts wholesalers.
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 has been a recovery in recent months. The inventory-to-sales ratio was 1.17 in February 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)