Motor vehicles, parts and services had the biggest year-over-year sales growth to end 2015, according to data that Statistics Canada released April 15.
Canadians spent $29.87 million on those items in the fourth quarter of 2015, up 9.4% from the same quarter in 2014, according to Canada’s number crunching body.
Fueling those sales was perhaps that fuel itself had fallen in terms of gasoline prices.
Canadians only spent $12.3 million in the quarter on automotive fuels, oils and additives, Statistics Canada reported. That was down 11.8% from $12.95 million in sales during the final quarter of 2014 and made fuels, oils and additives the biggest laggard among 10 retail categories. It was also the only specific retail category where sales fell.
Other retail categories that saw the most growth were housewares (up 7.3%), health and personal care products (up 5.1%) and hardware, lawn and garden products (up 4.9%).
