Canada's manufacturing sales decline 2.1% in March

By Ovunc Kutlu

ISTANBUL (AA) - Canada's manufacturing sales declined 2.1% to $69.9 billion in March, according to figures released Wednesday by the country's statistical agency.

The market expectation for the figure was to show a 2.4% decrease.

The figure for February was revised up to a gain of 0.9% from an increase of 0.7%.

The decline was led by lower sales of petroleum and coal products and motor vehicles.

"Following a 5.7% increase in February, sales of petroleum and coal products decreased 8.0% to $8.0 billion in March, on lower volumes," Statistics Canada said in a statement.

"Following two consecutive monthly increases, sales of motor vehicles declined 7.9% to $4.6 billion in March, while sales of motor vehicle parts were down 2.8%," it added.

On a quarterly basis, total manufacturing sales were down 0.9% during the January-March period, mostly due to lower sales of transportation equipment that fell 3% and primary metals that declined 4.4%.