A poor showing in the automotive sector pushed wholesale sales down 0.2% in January after three months of overall increases, Statistics Canada said today.

Sales outside the auto industry climbed a hefty 1.1%, but a drop of 7.1% in the motor vehicles group pushed the whole index down.

Of the 15 trade groups which represent 52% of total sales, 10 posted increases in January. Wholesalers of computers and electronic products had increases of 6.4%. Lumber and millwork sales rose 11.7% and household and personal products were up 4.7%.

Automotive and the “other products” categories, which had robust growth in December, lagged in January.

The statistics agency said Canadian new car sales slumped in January despite a number of sales incentives by auto makers.

Conversely, wholesalers of motor vehicle parts and accessories continued to register gains with a 2.4 per increase in January, likely because of a rise in used cars sales in Canada, the agency said.

“The supply of used cars has increased in Canada owing to the rise in the Canadian dollar, which has made these vehicles more costly on the U.S. market.”

Among the provinces, the largest increases were noted in New Brunswick (up 3.2%) and Nova Scotia (up 1.2%). Newfoundland and Labrador (down 5.9%) and British Columbia (down 2.2%) had the largest declines.

The value of wholesalers’ inventories grew for the fifth consecutive month, rising 1.2% to $47.4 billion in January. This increase was mainly attributable to the motor vehicle parts and accessories group, as well as the household and personal products group.