Canadians Aren’t Holding Back on Spending
Canadians bought $56.3 billion dollars worth of retail goods and services in February 2024, according to a new release from Statistics Canada – this is up 4.1% month-over-month.
The biggest jump came from the sale of food and beverages, which was up 8% month-over-month, and was primarily driven by the 7.9% increase in fresh food sales.
Canadians Are Frenzy Buying New Cars
The largest year-over-year jump came from the retail sales of new motor vehicles, which were up a whopping 15.3% compared to 1 year earlier.
Canadians bought $11.8 billion dollars worth of new vehicles in February 2024.
One interesting shift was that the sale of used motor vehicles actually decreased when compared to February 2023, down 1.8%.
Canadians are now choosing new cars over used ones — which is a shift in trend compared to previous years.
Preliminary March Data Shows a Small Dip In Spending
Apparently, times are good.
(Even though many consumer surveys highlight that consumers dont feel this way — confusing for sure. Or, perhaps, its all credit.)
However, there are some clouds forming on the horizon, preliminary retail sales data in March suggests there was a 1.5% spending drop in March.
Because this is advanced data, this figure will almost certainly be revised.
