Saskatchewan’s retail sector entered the fourth quarter of this year with some momentum. The retail spending figures released by StatsCanada for October put Saskatchewan ahead of the other western provinces with a small increase of 1.1-percent over September.
That compares to month-over-month declines in BC, Alberta and Manitoba. In fact, only one Atlantic province did better than Saskatchewan as nation-wide retail spending fell into negative territory for the month.
This performance offers a bit of insight into how inflation is working these days. While grocery prices are still rising, we are watching gasoline prices decline, offsetting some of the inflationary pressures. Basically, things are balancing out or neutralizing themselves – some prices up, some down.
For Saskatchewan, spending remained a bit higher in this scenario but across the country we saw sales of alcohol drop sharply – about 10-percent, partly because of a labor dispute in BC skewing the numbers. On the other side, furniture sales were growing along with automotive including parts.
