Industrial products measure rises by 0.2%, Stats Canada

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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Higher prices were charged by the Canadian refiners of energy products last month, regardless of paying less for crude petroleum for quite some time now, Stats Canada stated Thursday.

According to the data released by Statistics Canada, the industrial products measure rose by 0.2 percent in the last two months due to considerable boost in the costs of petroleum and coal products, and primary metals. The prices of petroleum and coal products rose by 1.8 percent.

On the other hand, the raw materials index dropped by 0.5 percent, mainly due to the 2.4 percent plunge in mineral fuels, pulled lower by the third consecutive monthly decline in crude petroleum – excluding raw material prices increased by 1.3 percent.

The reason behind the fluctuation in copper prices was the reduced world supply due to several labor conflicts and bad weather conditions that had an adverse impact on the normal course of production at some mines, mostly in South America. The raw materials index’s decline was compensated by elevated prices for non-ferrous metals and vegetable products.

The strong Canadian dollar benefitted those producers who charge their products in U.S. dollars. Without the effect of the exchange rate, industrial product prices increase between the last two months would have been around 0.6 percent. Economists forecasted at least 0.5 percent increase in February for both industrial products and raw materials. 

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