Behind The Store Front

Prepared for the Retail Council of Canada in partnership with Industry Canada By Jacobson Consulting Inc.

Recent Trends
Retail GDP

One way to evaluate the performance of a sector is to look at its share of economic income produced. Economists define Gross Domestic Product as the value-added or the payments to the domestic factors of production for producing their output. This measure represents the contribution of each industry to the total value of production in the Canadian economy. The figure below (Figure 31) provides some summary statistics based on industry GDP. Although the Retail sector produced only 5.7% of value-added, its growth rate still exceeds the national average and was substantially above that of other key sectors. This indicates that Retail is increasing its contribution to the economy.


Industry Gross Domestic Product at Basic Prices
$ constant 1997 (millions) 2000 2004 Growth Rate Share of Total
All industries 946,026 1,048,742 2.6% 100.0%
Manufacturing 179,564 181,254 0.2% 17.3%
Transportation and warehousing 45,765 50,230 2.4% 4.8%
Information and cultural industries 36,356 42,974 4.3% 4.1%
Wholesale trade 53,696 66,512 5.5% 6.3%
Retail trade 50,291 59,971 4.5% 5.7%
Finance and insurance, real estate and renting and leasing and management of companies and enterprises 181,064 209,916 3.8% 20.0%
Professional, scientific and technical services 41,462 46,620 3.0% 4.4%
Source: Statistics Canada, IMAD, July 2005
  • Figure 31 Industry Gross Domestic Product

    • 2007, Retail Council of Canada — The Voice of Retail