Canadian Retail Sales Jump 0.8% in Sharp Spending Rebound

  • Strong estimate for October comes after 0.6% gain in September
  • Economists see Bank of Canada looking past blip in demand

Shoppers in the Toronto Eaton Centre in Toronto, Ontario.

Photographer: Cole Burston/Bloomberg
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Canadian consumers splurged in September and October, a surprise resurgence in spending even as high interest rates restrict household budgets.

Receipts for retailers rose 0.8% last month, according to an advance estimate from Statistics Canada released Friday. That’s the biggest jump since April, and followed an unexpected 0.6% increase a month earlier, which far exceeded the median estimate of a flat reading in a Bloomberg survey of economists.