Published: 2024-02-22T14:01:23.000Z
Canada December Retail Sales - Completing a solid Q4
Senior Economist , North America
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Canada’s 0.9% increase in December retail sales is in line with a +0.8% estimate made with November’s report. Sales rose by 0.6% ex autos, 0.5% ex autos and gasoline, and by 0.8% in volume terms.
The data competes a solid Q4 in which sales rose by 1.0% (not annualized) and 1.3% in volume terms, which suggests consumers will contribute to what is likely to be a stronger GDP gain than a flat Q4 estimate made by the BoC in January. The advance estimate for January is for a decline of 0.4%, suggesting that as was the case in the US, retail spending lost a little momentum after finishing Q4 on a strong note.
