By Robb M. Stewart


OTTAWA--Producer prices in Canada continued to rise last month, driven by sharp increases in unwrought gold and solver allows, while Canadian companies paid considerably more for raw materials.

Statistics Canada's industrial product price index increased 1.5% in April from the month before, adding to rises the previous two months. On a 12-month basis, the producer-price index was up 1.4%.

Excluding energy products, producer prices were 1.4% higher on-month, the data agency said Tuesday.

Prices were up strongly for non-ferrous metal products, as geopolitical tensions in the Middle East spurred interest in precious metals as a safe-haven investment, Statistics Canada said. Prices were also up for industrial metals, including unwrought copper and copper alloys and unwrought aluminum and aluminum alloys.

Prices for energy and petroleum products increased for the third consecutive month in April, with finished motor gasoline up 6.7% with higher crude oil prices and the increased cost of summer blended gasoline, the data agency said.

The industrial product price index measures the prices that manufacturers in Canada receive once their goods leave the plant. It doesn't reflect the final prices consumers pay for goods on store shelves.

Prices for raw materials, which track prices paid by manufacturers, were up 5.5% after a 4.3% rise in March, which mark the two largest monthly increases in about two years. Compared with a year earlier, prices for raw materials were up 3.1%.

Crude energy products increased 5.8% in April, driven by an increase in crude oil amid heightened tensions between Iran and Israel and with the voluntary production cuts by several members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its partners.

The Bank of Canada has forecast economic growth will strengthen this year after stalling in the second half of last year, with expansion in gross domestic product projected to be 1.5% this year and about 2% in 2025 and 2026. The central bank is set to next decide on interest rates next week, having left its policy rate steady since last lifting it to a more than two-decade high last July.


Write to Robb M. Stewart at robb.stewart@wsj.com


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