The data, published by Statistics Canada on Friday, showed that Canadian
retail sales declined 1.4 percent m-o-m at CAD65.29 billion in March, following
an unrevised 0.2 percent m-o-m drop in February. That marked the
largest monthly decrease in retail sales since July 2022 (-2.2 percent m-o-m).
Economists had foreseen a fall of 1.4 percent m-o-m
for March.
According to the report, 5 of 9 subsectors recorded declines in retail
sales in March, accounting for 55.5 percent of total retail sales. Sales at motor
vehicle and parts dealers (-4.4 percent m-o-m) posted the largest fall,
followed by gasoline stations and fuel vendors (-3.9 percent m-o-m), and clothing,
clothing accessories, shoes, jewelry, luggage and leather goods retailers (-1.2
percent m-o-m). On the contrary, sales at sporting goods, hobby, musical
instrument, book, and miscellaneous retailers (+1.6 percent m-o-m), and building
material and garden equipment and supplies dealers (+1.6 percent m-o-m) registered
the biggest gains.
Excluding auto, retail sales slipped only 0.3 percent m-o-m in March after
an unrevised 0.7 percent m-o-m drop in the previous month, being better
than economists’ forecast of a 0.8 percent m-o-m fall.
In y-o-y terms, Canadian retail sales increased 2.4 percent in March,
following an unrevised 4.3 percent surge in the previous month. That was
the weakest annual gain in retail sales since January 2021 (+1.1 percent).
For the first quarter of 2023, Canada’s retail sales rose 0.7 percent.
Statistics Canada also said its preliminary estimates suggest that
Canada’s retail sales went up 0.2 percent m-o-m in April.