Canadian factory prices rose for the first time in three months in June, and raw material costs increased, with both gains led by oil.
The industrial product price index gained 0.7 percent, the most since July 2008, after a revised 1.2 percent decline in May, Statistics Canada said today. The increase exceeded the 0.1 percent gain predicted in a Bloomberg survey of 16 economists.
Raw materials prices rose 6.2 percent, more than the median forecast for a 3 percent gain, based on the median of 14 estimates.
Factory prices and raw material costs have both dropped over the last year, as a global recession and tight credit markets hampered orders. From a year ago, the industrial price index fell 5.4 percent, and the raw material index dropped 31 percent.
In a separate report, the Ottawa-based statistics bureau said that non-farm payroll employment fell by 64,000 in May, or by 0.4 percent, from the previous month. Average weekly earnings climbed 1.6 percent from the year-ago month.
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