Canadian Household Spending Shows Early Symptoms of Fatigue
- Retail sales excluding cars missed forecasts, as did inflation
- Loonie, odds of rate increase in May both decline on the data
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Canadian households, the main driver of the country’s economy for the past decade, are showing signs of spending fatigue.
An uptick of 0.4 percent in retail sales matched expectations, but excluding automobiles they were flat, trailing the median forecast of a 0.4 percent gain. Inflation also missed expectations, and the lackluster figures sent the currency down for third straight day.