Canadian retail sales dropped unexpectedly by 0.1 per cent in April this year after showing two months of gain. Statistics Canada data indicated that this is due to lower spending at food and electronic stores.
Predictions for a 0.7 per cent increase was disproved and Statscan had to revise March’s month-on-month gain to 0.9 per cent.
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Nick Exarhos, CIBC economist, said this is a negative for April’s GDP outlook and that this was bad news for the loonie as well.
Sales in 11 subsectors fell in April accounting for 43 per cent of retail trade, in terms of volume, retail sales dropped by 0.2 per cent.
Moreover, sales at food and beverage stores also fell by 1.3 per cent, making this the third decrease in four months. According to StasCan, inflation rate in May also increased to 0.9 per cent from 0.8 per cent.
