Paul Martin commentary
Inflation is messing up our tracking of retail or consumer spending.
While the overall rate of inflation seems to be slowing, its impact is still finding its way into our day-to-day spending habits. And that is skewing consumer spending totals.
The latest figures are from March so this is still looking at the first quarter of the year as we close on the end of Q2.
What they show is retailers posted increased revenues in the month, up nearly a full percentage point nationally and two-tenths of a point provincially when compared to February.
Normally we’d see that as a good thing: rising consumer spending signals confidence and population growth.
The problem this time round is that the volume of things we purchased actually declined but they were more expensive so we shelled out more cash. This was particularly evident in gasoline sales as the first impacts of the Middle East conflict began to surface. Gasoline is perhaps the best indicator: spending on fuel rose 12-percent but volume went down two points.
