Canada Wholesale Sales Estimated to Have Risen 2.1% in December

Robb M. Stewart

OTTAWA--Canadian wholesale trade rebounded in the final month of 2025 thanks to a recovery in the automotive industry.

Statistics Canada on Tuesday said an early tally of wholesale receipts points to a 2.1% increase in December sales from the month before.

The estimates show that sales increased in the motor vehicle and parts sector.

The advance indicator was based on a weighted response rate to the data agency's survey of roughly 67%. Statistics Canada is scheduled to release official wholesale trade data for December on Feb. 17.

Sales in the wholesale sector dropped 1.8% between October and November, the second-steepest retreat in the past two years, due to a sharp fall in motor vehicle and parts trade to the lowest level since late 2022. Excluding the autos segment, sales for the month ticked up 0.1%.

An early estimate of factory activity released last week also indicated manufacturing sales recovered in December, rising 0.5% from a month prior. That would mark the second rise in five months, and partly reverses a 1.2% drop in sales in November when global semiconductor shortages weighed heavily on the auto industry.

Wholesalers--the largest component of Canada's services sector--connect farmers or manufacturers that produce goods with companies and public institutions that use them. They also import goods from other countries and redistribute them within Canada. Statistics Canada's wholesale measure excludes petroleum and oilseed and grain sales.

Write to Robb M. Stewart at robb.stewart@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 27, 2026 09:00 ET (14:00 GMT)