Nathan Janzen, the senior economist at the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), notes that Canada’s June manufacturing sales were on the soft side, declining 1.2% in total, but perhaps not quite as soft as feared given an earlier-reported sharp drop in exports for June. 

• “Most of the headline manufacturing sales decline was due to a drop in prices, including a big 5% drop in petroleum and coal prices.  The 0.2% dip in headline sales once controlling for price changes followed a 1.7% jump in May.
• Overall in Q2, manufacturing sale volumes increased 7.3% (at an annualized rate) from Q1 and 2.9% from a year ago.  We are still tracking a ~3% increase in overall Q2 GDP.”