Economics
Canadian Retailers Are Off to Their Best Start Ever
- January-to-April gain of 3.6% matches record YTD increase
- April’s 0.8% rise in retail sales exceeds all survey forecasts
A shopper browses clothing at a second hand store in Kensington Market in Toronto.
Photographer: Brent Lewin/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Canada’s retailers have never had it better.
Consumers continued their free-spending ways in April, pushing retail sales to a 0.8 percent gain from the prior month and bringing the total increase since the beginning of the year to 3.6 percent, Statistics Canada reported Thursday. That matches the best start to a year in data back to 1991.