Canada Sees Slight Retail Spike in April

Retail sales in Canada increased by 0.9 percent for the month of April to $60.72 billion CAD ($48.02 billion USD), according to Statistics Canada (Ottawa) and reported by MarketWatch.

Retail sales exceeding their expectations, experts had originally predicted a 0.8 percent increase before the month began.

Statistics Canada is predicting that retail sales in May will have had an even larger increase of 1.6 percent. Setting aside gas stations and other auto-related retailers like car dealerships or mechanic shops, the increase was closer to 1 percent.

Statistics Canada was established in 1971 and serves as the agency of the Canadian government, charged with producing statistics in order to better understand things like resources, society, culture, the economy and its population.