Statistics Canada released its Monthly Survey of Manufacturing, which showed that the Canadian manufacturing sales declined 1.5 percent m-o-m in July to CAD59.55 billion, following a revised 3.6 percent m-o-m jump in June (originally a 2.1 percent m-o-m increase).

Economists had anticipated a fall of 1.2 percent m-o-m for July.

According to the survey, sales dropped in 12 of 21 industries, led by the wood product (-21.8 percent m-o-m), aerospace product and parts (-19.0 percent m-o-m), miscellaneous (-12.1 percent m-o-m) and petroleum and coal product (-2.3 percent m-o-m) industries. The declines, however, were partially offset by higher sales in the motor vehicles (+13.5 percent m-o-m), primary metal (+3.9 percent m-o-m) and motor vehicle parts (+7.6 percent m-o-m) industries.

Overall, sales of durable goods plunged 2.7 percent m-o-m in July, while sales of non-durable goods went down 0.3 percent m-o-m.

In y-o-y terms, manufacturing sales climbed 12.2 percent in July.