Canadian manufacturing sales increased 0.7% to $71.6 billion in February, on elevated sales in 13 of 21 subsectors, mainly driven by higher sales of petroleum and coal (+4.3%) as well as electrical equipment, appliance and component (+12.6%) products. Meanwhile, the chemical subsector (-5.5%) recorded the largest decline. Sales in constant dollars edged up 0.1% in February, while the Industrial Product Price Index increased 0.7%. Sales of petroleum and coal products rose 4.3% to $8.7 billion in February, primarily due to higher prices and to a lesser extent, volumes (+0.8%). In February, prices of refined petroleum ... (full story)