Nathan Janzen, the senior economist at the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), notes that Canada’s headline manufacturing sales rose 0.8% in August while volume sales increased 0.6%.

• “The bounce-back in August manufacturing sales (from a 1.3% drop the prior month) was largely as-expected. Transitory summer motor vehicle assembly shutdowns weighed on output in July and a resumption of activity contributed to an increase in August. Still, sales were also up 0.7% excluding the motor vehicle.
• Controlling for price-effects, sale volumes were up 0.6% from July, and 1.1% ahead of year-ago levels. That is admittedly an uninspiring growth rate. But it still leaves the manufacturing sector looking relatively resilient given sharper deterioration in the industrial sectors of global peers – most significantly for Canada, in the United States – alongside escalating global trade tensions.”