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June 16, 2023WHOLESALE TRADE, APRIL 2023 NOTE
Starting with the March 2023 reference month, petroleum products data will be available within Statistics Canada's data tables. This distorts year-over-year and year-to-date comparisons. The effect causes data for oil-producing regions to increase more rapidly than in other provinces, distorting the graphic. The colour bars for Alberta are truncated and displayed in gray vs the normal green.
MONTH-OVER-MONTH (seasonally adjusted, April 2023 vs March 2023)
Nova Scotia wholesale trade decreased 3.5% to $1.2 billion. Canada wholesale trade increased 0.4% to $123.4 billion. Including petroleum, national wholesale trade increased 0.4% to $123.4 billion in April. Five provinces reported an increase. Prince Edward Island reported the largest increase while Nova Scotia reported the largest decrease.
YEAR-OVER-YEAR (seasonally adjusted, April 2023 vs April 2022)
Nova Scotia wholesale trade increased 7.6%. Canada's wholesale trade increased 54.7% 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. The prairie provinces and Newfoundland and Labrador reported the largest gains while Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia reported the smallest gains.
YEAR-TO-DATE (January-April 2023 vs January-April 2022)
Nova Scotia wholesale trade increased 5.9%. Canada's wholesale trade increased 31.1% (including petroleum, oil seeds and grains). All provinces reported year to date increases. The prairie provinces reported the largest year-to-date gains in wholesale trade, and Prince Edward Island reported the smallest increase.
The largest dollar contributions to Nova Scotia's to wholesale trade came from food and beverage wholesalers as well as building materials wholesalers.
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The largest percentage contributions to Nova Scotia's to wholesale trade growth came from motor vehicle and parts wholesalers, and machinery/equipment wholesalers. Miscellaneous wholesalers, building material wholesalers and food/beverage wholesalers reported year-to-date declines over the same period last year.
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 in the last two months.
National wholesale inventories decreased $5.4 billion from March to April. The national ratio of inventories to sales fell to 1.31 in April.
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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