-Stephen Poloz, Bank of Canada Governor
Canada's wholesale sales rose in December at the fastest pace in almost four years driven by increases in the automobile and personal household goods categories and reinforcing the view that consumers are spurring growth. Wholesale trade rose 2.5% to C$55.4 billion from C$54.1 billion, recording the highest value of sales in any single month since January 1993. Higher sales were seen in six out of seven sub-sectors, making up 80% of wholesale sales. In volume terms, sales surged 2.4%. Motor vehicle sales rose 9.0% to C$7.66 billion, while agricultural supplies soared 18.3% to C$2.29 billion. The December gain means that wholesale sales for all of 2014 rose 6.4% to C$633 billion, more than the previous two years, Statistics Canada said. Inventories also increased for the twelfth straight month, climbing 1% to C$69.1 billion. The advance in inventories was also broad-based, with six out of seven sub-components surging.
Stephen Poloz, Bank of Canada Governor, said that the world's 11th biggest economy has to rebalance from indebted consumers to business investing. In order to protect the nation's economy from lower crude prices, the central bank announced a surprise interest-rate cut from 1% to 0.75% on January 21.
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