Prices for products sold by Canadian manufacturers, as measured by the Industrial Product Price Index (IPPI), declined 0.2% in July, led by 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), rose 0.7%, primarily on higher prices for crude energy products.

The IPPI was down 0.2% in July, following a 0.7% increase in June. July marked the first decline in the IPPI in 2018. Of the 21 major commodity groups, 7 were down, 10 were up and 4 were unchanged.

Primary non-ferrous metal products (-3.3%), which posted their largest decline since July 2017, were the main source of the decline in the IPPI. Lower prices for unwrought precious metals and precious metal alloys (-3.9%) and unwrought copper and copper alloys (-10.1%) pulled this commodity group downward. To a lesser extent, prices of other unwrought non-ferrous metals and non-ferrous metal alloys (-2.9%) and unwrought aluminum and aluminum alloys (-3.1%) also contributed to the decline of primary non-ferrous metal products.