Canadian wholesale trade grew by a less-than-expected 0.2% in August from July, pushed higher by the machinery, equipment and supplies sector, Statistics Canada data indicated on Thursday.
Analysts had expected an increase of 0.5%. Statscan revised July's month-on-month advance to 0.9% from an initial 0.8%.
After removing the effects of the Canadian dollar's depreciation against the U.S. dollar, which boosted prices for imported goods sold by wholesalers, sales in volume terms fell 0.9%. It was the largest fall since the 1.9% drop recorded in May 2010.
Machinery, equipment and supplies registered the biggest increase in dollar terms in August, climbing 0.7% for the sixth monthly sales increase since the start of the year.
The largest decline was a 1.1% drop in the miscellaneous subsector, reflecting lower sales of agricultural supplies. Overall inventories rose by 0.9% and the inventory-to-sales ratio edged up to 1.18 from 1.17 in July.
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