The data, published
by Statistics Canada on Wednesday, revealed that Canadian retail sales slipped
0.1 per cent m-o-m to CAD66.67 billion in February, following an unrevised 0.3 per cent m-o-m fall in January. This was the first fall in retail sales in five
months.
Economists
had foreseen a gain of
0.1 per cent m-o-m in February.
According to
the report, 5 of 9 subsectors demonstrated declines in retail sales in February.
Sales at gasoline stations and fuel vendors (-2.2 per cent m-o-m) showed the
largest drop, followed by furniture, home furnishings, electronics and
appliances retailers (-1.5 per cent m-o-m), and clothing, clothing accessories,
shoes, jewellery, luggage and leather goods retailers (-1.0 per cent m-o-m). Meanwhile,
general merchandise retailers (+1.1 per cent m-o-m) and motor vehicle and parts
dealers (+0.5 per cent m-o-m) posted the biggest increases in retail sales in February.
Excluding auto,
retail sales dropped 0.3 per cent m-o-m in February after a downwardly revised 0.4 per cent m-o-m increase (from
+0.5 per cent m-o-m) in the previous month, being worse than economists’ forecast of a
flat m-o-m performance.
In y-o-y terms,
Canadian retail sales jumped 1.2 per cent in February, following a downwardly revised
0.2 per cent gain (from +0.9 per cent) in the previous month. This represented
the eighth straight annual increase in retail sales.
Statistics
Canada also revealed its preliminary estimates suggest that Canada’s retail
sales were unchanged m-o-m
in March.