Canada’s manufacturing sales rise 1.4% in July

OTTAWA (AA): Canada’s manufacturing sales rose 1.4% to $71 billion in July, according to figures released Monday by the country’s statistical agency.

The market expectation for the figure was to show an increase of 0.7%.

The figure for June, meanwhile, was revised down from a decline of 2.1% to a decrease of 1.7%.

“Following a 0.4% increase in June, sales in the petroleum and coal product subsector rose 6.7% to $8.6 billion in July,” Statistics Canada said in a statement.

“Chemical product sales increased 5.3% to $5.6 billion in July, following two consecutive monthly declines,” it added.

Annually, manufacturing sales decreased 1.1% in July, compared to the same month of last year.