StatCan: Retail sales likely down 0.6% in May following April rebound

Canadian retail sales likely dropped last month, nearly wiping out all of April’s gains and highlighting weakness in consumer spending that will keep more Bank of Canada rate cuts on the table this year.

 

Receipts for retailers fell 0.6 per cent in May, the biggest monthly decline since January, according to an advance estimate from Statistics Canada released Friday. That followed a 0.7 per cent jump, matching expectations in a Bloomberg survey of economists.

 

April’s increase — the only gain in retail sales so far this year — was primarily driven by gasoline stations and fuel vendors, which likely benefitted from higher prices. In volume terms, retail sales rose 0.5 per cent. The largest decline in retail sales in April was posted by car dealers, which had been a driver of higher receipts for months.

New vehicles led the drop. Excluding autos, receipts surged 1.8 per cent, three times faster than expected. Core retail sales, which exclude gas stations and car dealers, increased 1.4 per cent on higher sales at food and beverage stores.

 

Regionally, sales rose in eight of 10 provinces, with Alberta seeing the largest provincial increase of 3.1 per cent, driven by higher receipts at vehicle and parts dealers. Ontario, on the other hand, recorded the biggest provincial decline of one per cent, led by lower sales at car dealers.
Sales were down 2.5 per cent in Toronto. The statistics agency didn’t provide details on the advance estimate for May, which was based on responses from 47.5 per cent of companies surveyed. The average final response rate for the survey over the previous 12 months was 90.3 per cent

 

 

 

This article was first reported by BNN Bloomberg