According to Statistics Canada, the Machinery and Equipment Price Index (MEPI) decreased 5.4 percent in the second quarter, following a 2.4 percent increase in the first quarter. The import component was down 6.5 percent over the period, while the domestic component decreased 1.9 percent.
Every industry recorded lower prices for machinery and equipment purchased in the second quarter by all services (-6.0 percent): mines, quarries and oil wells (-5.0 percent), and all manufacturing (-5.2 percent) contributed to the quarterly decrease in prices.
Prices decreased for all commodities in the second quarter. Computers and computer peripheral equipment (-9.2 percent) and logging, mining and construction machinery and equipment (-4.8 percent) were the commodities that contributed the most to the quarterly decline of the total MEPI.
The total MEPI increased 4.0 percent in the second quarter compared with the same quarter of 2015. The purchase price of machinery and equipment has risen year over year every quarter since the first quarter of 2013.
The import component increased 4.7 percent, and the domestic component was up 1.8 percent. The movement in the import component was partly influenced by the year-over-year depreciation of the Canadian dollar (-4.6 percent) against the US dollar in the second quarter.