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During the past year, though, monthly factory sales have been down as often as they have been up — granted, by varying degrees. It’s a number-crunching process that has been repeated since the 2008-09 recession in Canada, and the sector is likely to struggle to maintain June’s upward momentum.

The manufacturing data “has gone back and forth. It’s basically been fluctuating around the $50-billion mark per month,” said Mike Holden, director of policy and economics at Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters.

“So, it did go up in June. It was a decent increase and we saw some growth in some of the sectors that had been struggling recently — machinery, fabricated metals and motor vehicles. It’s too early to point to that as being the beginning of a turnaround. It’s good news. It’s better to be growing than not,” said Holden, who is based in Calgary.

“But I think we’d have to wait for a few more months of data before we point to that (June report) as a new upward trend.”

Since the economic downturn, factory operators have been criticized for not investing enough money to expand their export markets. Manufacturers have also been hurt by the oil-price collapse that hampered activity in Alberta, which has also been sidelined by recent wildfires in that province.

Still, others view June factory sales as a glass half full.

I think we’d have to wait for a few more months of data before we point to that (June report) as a new upward trend

“The jump in manufacturing sales supports our view that much of the May 2016 weakness was transitory and is consistent with our forecast that monthly gross domestic product rose by 0.5 per cent in both June and July, following the 0.6-per-cent plummet in May,” wrote Paul Ferley, assistant chief economist at RBC Economics, in a research note.