The data, published by Statistics Canada on Friday, revealed that
the Canadian retail sales rose 0.7 percent m-o-m to CAD58.08 billion in November,
following an unrevised 1.6 percent m-o-m climb in October.
Economists had forecast a gain of 1.2 percent m-o-m
for November.
According to the report, six of 11 subsectors recorded increases in
retail sales in November, accounting for 63.8 percent of total retail sales. The
largest gains occurred in retail sales at gasoline stations (+4.9 percent m-o-m),
building material and garden equipment and supplies dealers (+3.0 percent m-o-m), and food and beverage stores (+1.0 percent m-o-m). On the contrary, sporting
goods, hobby, book and music stores (-10.0 percent m-o-m) witnessed the largest
decline, followed by furniture and home furnishings stores (-1.2 percent m-o-m)
and electronics and appliance stores (-1.1 percent m-o-m).
Excluding auto, retail sales rose 1.1 percent m-o-m in November after an
unrevised 1.3 percent m-o-m advance in the previous month, being worse than economists’ forecast of a
1.3 percent m-o-m gain.
In y-o-y terms, the Canadian retail sales surged 4.4 percent in November,
following an unrevised 5.3 percent jump in the previous month.