Canadian retail sales rose 0.4 percent to $66.6 billion in August, helped by higher new car sales, Statistics Canada said Friday.
However, core retail sales—which exclude gasoline stations and fuel vendors and motor vehicle and parts dealers—fell 0.4 percent in August.
“The details of the August retail sales report were softer than the headline increase, especially after accounting for the support from autos,” Bank of Montreal economist Shelly Kaushik wrote in a report.
“Consumer spending continues to lag well behind population growth; with the latter looking to cool to around zero in the coming years, we’ll see if spending can recover from the combination of low inflation and falling interest rates.”…