Prices for products sold by Canadian manufacturers, as measured by the Industrial Product Price Index (IPPI), decreased 0.5% in August, mainly due to lower prices for primary non-ferrous metal products. Prices for raw materials purchased by Canadian manufacturers, as measured by the Raw Materials Price Index (RMPI), fell 4.6%, largely reflecting lower prices for crude energy products.

The IPPI fell 0.5% in August, following a 0.2% decrease in July. Of the 21 major commodity groups, 12 were down, 7 were up and 2 were unchanged.

The decrease in the IPPI was mainly due to lower prices for primary non-ferrous metal products (-3.4%), which posted their largest decline since July 2017. Lower prices for unwrought precious metals and precious metal alloys (-3.9%), unwrought aluminum and aluminum alloys (-5.8%) and unwrought copper and copper alloys (-4.0%) were mostly responsible for the decline in this commodity group.