B.C. retail sales growth lagged behind the rest of Canada in October, according to Statistics Canada numbers released Tuesday.
The national number cruncher pinned retail sales in B.C. at $4.87 billion in October, up 2.1% from the $4.77 billion in the same month in 2009.
Nationally, retail sales grew 3.3% to $36.64 billion in October compared with the same month in 2009.
The good news for retailers was October was the fifth consecutive month of retail sales growth across Canada. Gains were reported in seven of the 11 subsectors Statistics Canada tracks.
“It’s not a concern that retail sales in B.C. aren’t growing faster than the national average,” said Mark Startup, who is the CEO of Shelfspace: The Association for Retail Entrepreneurs.
“2010 has been pretty strong. There has been a rate of growth increases in other provinces that would exceed British Columbia, but I’m not concerned about that,” Startup told Business in Vancouver on Tuesday.
Alberta led the way with 6% retail sales growth in October compared with the same month in 2009. Prince Edward Island saw the next largest growth in retail sales.
Newfoundland, which had 0.3% growth, and Saskatchewan, which grew retail sales 0.6%, had the lowest growth among Canadian provinces.