Canadian wholesale sales were down 0.2% in November from the pervious month as weakeness in the automotive sector dragged down an otherwise healthy performance, Statistics Canada said today.

Total wholesale sales for the month were $40.5 billion. Excluding the automotive sector, sales rose 1.1%, the agency reported.

The November decline followed an overall gain of 1.8% in October.

Wholesale sales have generally been rising since the fall of 2003.

Three of the seven sectors monitored by the data-gathering agency saw dropping sales, accounting for 41% of the total: automotive products, down 5%; farm products, down 6.9% and machinery and electronic equipment down 0.7%.

November was the first month in the last four in which sales of farm products did not increase.

The change was essentially attributable to wholesalers of live animals, the agency said.

The drop in the automotive sector was entirely due to a 7.5% contraction of wholesale sales of motor vehicles.

“Dealers wanting to reduce their inventories contributed to the sharp drop in wholesale sales of motor vehicles in November,” StatsCan said.

“Another factor contributing to the decrease was that some motor vehicle assembly plants temporarily shut down or cut back their operations in November, to reduce the quantity of some models found in their dealers’ inventories.”

Wholesalers of motor vehicle parts, however, posted a second consecutive gain in November, up 5.8%.

The largest sectoral increases came in personal and household goods, up 3.1% and the catch-all “other products” sector, up 2.8%.

In constant dollars, wholesale sales decreased 1.7% in November.

In November, wholesalers cut back their inventories for the first time in nine months, down 0.4%.

The inventory-to-sales ratio was basically unchanged in November at 1.20. Since September 2004, the ratio has remained generally stable after a downward period that began in October 2003.