The data, released by Statistics Canada on Friday, showed that the
Canadian retail sales decreased 1.8 percent m-o-m to CAD57.05 billion in December,
following an upwardly revised 0.8 percent m-o-m increase (from +0.7 percent
m-o-m) in November. This marked the first drop in retail sales in the last
three months.
Economists had forecast a fall of 2.1 percent m-o-m
for December.
According to the report, eight of 11 subsectors witnessed drops in
retail sales in December, accounting for 62.9 percent of total retail sales.
The largest declines occurred in retail sales at clothing and clothing accessories
stores (-9.5 percent m-o-m), furniture and home furnishings stores
(-11.3 percent m-o-m), and building material and garden equipment and supplies
dealers (-5.0 percent m-o-m). On the contrary, retail sales at motor vehicle
and parts dealers (+0.5 percent
m-o-m) saw the largest advance, followed by health and personal care stores (+0.2 percent
m-o-m) and miscellaneous store retailers (+0.1 percent m-o-m).
Excluding auto, retail sales plunged 2.5 percent m-o-m in December after
an unrevised 1.1 percent m-o-m increase in the previous month, being worse than economists’
forecast of a 2.0 percent m-o-m decline.
In y-o-y terms, the Canadian retail sales soared 8.6 percent in December,
following an unrevised 4.4 percent rise in the previous month.