Industry News

17/03/2010 - Canadian merchants likely saw an uptick in their debit and credit card processing activity in the month of January, as the country's wholesale sales showed the strongest increase in three years.

Statistics Canada reported Wednesday that wholesale sales in current dollars rose by 3 percent in January to reach $44.4 billion, continuing the upward trend seen since the middle of 2009. In volume terms, the increase was almost identical, rising 2.9 percent.

Merchants in the automotive products, building materials, machinery and electronic equipment, and what Statistics Canada defines as "other products" likely saw the most payment processing activity, as these four sectors in particular accounted for 80 percent of the sales growth.

Additionally, all provinces except Nova Scotia saw higher wholesale sales that month.

The inventory-to-sales ratio also to 1.19 in January, from 1.24 in December - significantly lower than the all-time high of 1.44 seen in March 2009.

These results are indicative of a bigger trend, economists say.

"Canada's economic recovery is definitely starting to gather some momentum," Meny Grauman, a senior economist at Toronto's Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, told Business Week. "Today's data fits into a growing pool of strong economic reports."

As the economy continues its march toward recovery, savvy business owners would be well-advised to keep their POS terminals and other payment processing infrastructure secure and up-to-date, to ensure they can handle the influx in sales.