Canada's Producer Prices Fall 0.8% in August

By Robb M. Stewart

OTTAWA--Producer prices in Canada fell in August, driven by lower prices for energy and petroleum products, and Canadian companies paid less for raw materials for the month.

Statistics Canada's industrial product price index declined 0.8% from the month before. On a 12-month basis, the producer-price index was up 0.2%.

Prices for energy and petroleum products sank 5.0%, the largest month-over-month drop since last December, the data agency said. The fall was mostly thanks to a fall in prices for refined products including diesel fuels and finished gasoline.

Excluding energy products, producer prices were down 0.2% on-month.

Prices for primary non-ferrous metal products were lower for the month, led by prices for unwrought precious metals and their alloys and unwrought copper and copper alloys, Statistics Canada said. Prices also declined for meat, fish and dairy products, in part a reflection of slower seasonal demand.

The industrial product price index measures the prices that manufacturers in Canada receive once their goods leave the plant. It doesn't reflect the final prices consumers pay for goods on store shelves.

Prices for raw materials, which track prices paid by manufacturers operating in Canada, were down 3.1% from July. Compared with a year earlier, prices for raw materials were 2.5% lower.

After stalling in the second half of last year, Canada's economy resumed growth in the early months of 2024, though the pace has been lackluster considering its rapid population growth and gross domestic product on a per-capita basis has fallen in seven of the last eight quarters.

The Bank of Canada, the first Group of Seven central bank to offer rate relief to borrowers this year, followed up early this month with a third successive cut to its policy interest rate as inflation has continued to cool.

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

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 20, 2024 08:55 ET (12:55 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.