With inflation continuing to erode the average person’s purchasing power, you’d expect the monthly report on retail sales or consumer spending to go up as a result of higher prices. So we have to not only track aggregate spending numbers we also have to look at the volume of goods we are buying.
The latest figures on those are from November and they show both were on the rise. That is a good sign as consumer sentiment appears to be holding in this country.
Overall retail spending rose 1.3-percent in Canada in November. Volume or the number of things we bought went up 1.1-percent. The reason we track both is that gasoline prices have been falling for months now and that moderates the amount of money we are shelling out at retail outlets. But, even with softer fuel prices, we spent more and bought more things or greater volumes of them.
In Saskatchewan, retail spending rose 1.2-percent in November. That was pretty much on par with the country as a whole suggesting Black Friday was a potent catalyst to start the Christmas season.
