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Canadian purchasing managers index edges down

January 02, 2014

Canadian manufacturing business conditions continued to expand in December, according to the Royal Bank of Canada’s Canadian manufacturing purchasing managers’ index. Although December’s reading of 53.5 is down from November’s reading of 55.3 and a four-month low, it is still above the 50.0 no-change mark. The RBC PMI is a monthly survey conducted in association with Markit, a financial information services company, and the Supply Chain Management Association.

Manufacturing employment in Canada rose for the 23nd consecutive month in December. However, the overall rate of job creation slowed to an eight-month low that was also weaker than the series average.

“Despite having dipped to a four-month low in December, the RBC PMI continued to suggest that the manufacturing sector has moved past the weakness at the start of the year. Importantly, new orders continued to rise strongly, suggesting that overall growth will be sustained moving into 2014,” said Cheryl Paradowski, president and CEO of the Supply Chain Management Association. “The employment index continued to disappoint, showing the weakest increase since April, which was also below trend.”

The RBC PMI is based on data compiled from monthly replies to questionnaires sent to purchasing executives in more than 400 industrial companies.