Canadian retailers battered, not broken, by second wave – RBC Economics Thought leadership
February 4, 2021
The second wave of virus spread and the re-imposition of containment measures put the brakes on Canadian retail sales in December. Statistics Canada’s preliminary estimate of retail activity showed a decline of 2.6% in the all-important December shopping month. And with lockdowns intensifying in parts of the country, we expect sales will dip again in January.
RBC’s credit/debit card spending data point to sales falling about 5% in December and January in data available to-date, a much less acute drop than in the spring when retail sales plunged over 30% over March and April.
