Paul Martin’s Business Update – February 17th, 2015

The falling price of oil and the trickle down that has seen gasoline prices decline took a bite out of the province’s manufacturing numbers in December.

The monthly report from StatsCan saw the dollar volume generated by Saskatchewan manufacturers fell by four per cent compared to November. That wiped out all the gains we had seen through the year as the year-over-year numbers declined by just over three percent.

Pretty much the whole reduction was due to the falling price of oil. It’s not that we sold less volume, but the unit value had fallen so it took the gross numbers downward.

The relative strength of other manufacturing categories provided a bit of a cushion for the aggregate numbers, nonetheless, it is a sign that the record figures we had been generating will not be threatened for a while. It’s also interesting to note that Manitoba’s sales for the month actually exceeded ours, the first time we’ve seen that in a year or more as they avoided the impact of falling oil prices since they don’t have a major refinery.

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