Manufacturing sales rose seven per cent in Saskatchewan in August to $1.4 billion. The national average was a rise of just 0.8 per cent. Statistics Canada says the closest to our increase was Manitoba’s rise of four per cent. Higher sales for food products and chemicals were the primary reasons for the increase. Year-to-year numbers were not as encouraging. We saw a drop of nearly eight per cent in this province. Nationally there was a drop of 0.5 per cent. Only two provinces experienced bigger drops than ours.
In the Saskatoon census metropolitan area, manufacturing sales were off 1.9 per cent month-to-month. That was the biggest drop of 12 cities surveyed. We were off 1.8 per cent year-to-year. Four cities experienced bigger declines. Total sales in August in the Saskatoon CMA came in at $293 million.