Canadian Retail Sales increase 0.4% in May. | CountingPips Forex & Currency Trading Blog

July 22, 2008 - Forex Economic News

Canadian Retail Sales increase 0.4% in May.

Canadian Retail Sales increased in May according to a report by Statistics Canada released today. May retail sales increased by 0.4 percent to C$35.8 billion and followed a revised increase of 0.6 percent in April. The rise in Retail sales was slightly less than anticipated by economic forecasts which had expected an increase in the sales numbers by 0.5 percent.

Providing a boost to the retail sales numbers was an increase in gasoline station sales which rose by 2.4 percent as gas prices increased by 8.8 percent in May. Sales in the automotive sector and the building and outdoor home supplies sector also provided positive gains for the month with increases of 1.1 percent and 0.7 percent, respectively. Clothing and accessories stores showed the largest sales decrease for the month with a decline of 0.7 percent.

Core retail sales or sales minus automobiles increased in May by 0.4 percent which was also slightly below market forecasts predicting a 0.6 percent increase. Core retail sales in April showed a revised increase of 1.2 percent.

Tags: Retail Sales, Canada, cad, core sales

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