Statistics Canada announced Friday that Canadian factory sales rose 2 percent to C$45.1 billion in August, the most since June 2009.
Motor vehicle sales led the surge with a 14 percent jump to C$4 billion from July of this year. Economists attribute the increase to resumed production at automobile plants in August after shutdowns last month.
New factory orders in Canada rose 5.3 percent to C$45.9 billion in August and inventories rose 1.3 percent to C$60 billion. The ratio of inventories to sales however fell to 1.33 in August from 1.34 in July. Statistics Canada has also revised its initial estimate of July's factory sales decline from 0.9 percent to 1.1 percent.