Canadian Wholesale Trade Rises 0.3% in July, Beating Expectations

08:50 AM EDT, 09/15/2026 (MT Newswires) -- Canadian wholesale trade, excluding oil, oil products, hydrocarbons, oilseeds and grains, increased 0.3% month over month to CA$93.1 billion in July as sales rose in three of seven subsectors, representing about half of total wholesale trade, the country's statistical agency said Tuesday. The biggest increases occurred in the building material and supplies subsector, rising 3.5% on the month, and the food, beverage, and tobacco subsector, climbing 1.7%, wrote Statistics Canada in a statement. July's wholesale trade topped a 0.5% monthly consensus drop provided by a Bloomberg survey. Year-over-year, wholesale sales increased by 7.9%, added StatsCan. Wholesale inventories excluding oil, hydrocarbons, oilseed, and grain remained essentially stable at CA$140.6 billion, said the Ottawa-based agency. The inventory-to-sales ratio slightly declined to 1.51 in July from 1.52 in June, reflecting the number of months it would take to deplete inventories based on current sales levels.