British Columbians opened their wallets little more in July than they did a year ago, with Statistics Canada announcing a 6.2% year-over-year increase in retail spending.
Across Canada, retail spending grew by 5.0% over the same period. This was driven in large part by an 8.1% jump in sales of motor vehicles and parts, mostly in the area of new car sales.
The province with the largest increase was Alberta, at 8.9%.
Compared with June, however, retail spending in B.C. was down 0.4% – a bigger drop than the national average decrease of 0.1%.
“Despite the marginal decline in July retail sales growth [nationally], the data remain consistent with overall real consumer spending continuing to increase in the third quarter of 2014 at a 2.2% annualized rate although this would be down from the 3.8% surge recorded in the second quarter,” said RBC Economics assistant chief economist Paul Ferley.
“With both business investment growth expected to strengthen and a lessening in the drag from inventories, overall gross domestic product (GDP) growth is expected to rise modestly to 3.3% in the third quarter from the earlier-reported 3.1% gain in the second quarter.”
General merchandise sales dipped 2.7% across the country in July, which cancelled out some gains seen the previous month.
The province with the biggest growth in sales in July was Newfoundland and Labrador, where retail sales increased 1.9%.
@EmmaHampelBIV
