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Economic news
20.06.2025

Canada’s retail sales rise slightly less than anticipated in April

The data, released by Statistics Canada on Friday, revealed that Canadian retail sales rose 0.3 per cent to CAD70.11 billion in April, following an unrevised 0.8 per cent m-o-m climb in March.

Economists had anticipated a gain of 0.4 per cent m-o-m in April.

According to the report, 6 out of 9 subsectors recorded increase in retail sales in April, led by motor vehicle and parts dealers (+1.9 per cent m-o-m), sporting goods, hobby, musical instrument, book, and miscellaneous retailers (+1.0 per cent m-o-m), and furniture, home furnishings, electronics and appliances retailers (+0.8 per cent m-o-m). Meanwhile, gasoline stations and fuel vendors (-2.7 per cent m-o-m), clothing, clothing accessories, shoes, jewelry, luggage and leather goods retailers (-2.2 per cent m-o-m), and building material and garden equipment and supplies dealers (-0.4 per cent m-o-m) posted declines.

Excluding auto, retail sales dropped 0.3 per cent m-o-m in April after a downwardly revised 0.8 per cent m-o-m plunge (from -0.7 per cent m-o-m) in the previous month, being much worse than economists’ forecast of a 0.2 per cent m-o-m advance.

In y-o-y terms, Canadian retail sales jumped 5.0 per cent in April, following an unrevised 5.6 per cent soar in the previous month.

Statistics Canada also said its preliminary estimates suggest that Canada’s retail sales tumbled 1.1 per cent m-o-m in May, the most since March 2023 (-1.1 per cent m-o-m).

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