Feb 21 (Reuters) – Canadian retail sales grew by 2.5% in December from November at C$69.59 billion ($49.05 billion), led by increased sales at food and beverage retailers, as well as motor vehicle and parts dealers, Statistics Canada said on Friday. Sales were likely down 0.4% in January, the agency said in a flash estimate.
In December, sales were up in all nine subsectors. In volume terms, retail sales increased 2.5%.
(Percent changes) Dec Dec Nov(rev) Nov(prev)
mo/mo yr/yr mo/mo mo/mo
Total +2.5 +3.9 +0.2 0.0
Excluding autos/parts +2.7 +2.6 -0.7 -0.7
NOTE: All figures are seasonally adjusted. Analysts surveyed by Reuters forecast December retail sales to be up 1.6% on the month, and to be up 1.8% excluding autos.
($1=$1.4189 Canadian)
(Reporting by Dale Smith; Editing by Promit Mukherjee) ((promit.mukherjee@tr.com))
Keywords: CANADA ECONOMY/RETAIL
Comments