Retail sales in Alberta reached $6.7 billion in December, rising by one per cent from the previous month, according to Statistics Canada.
The federal agency reported Friday that sales in the province more than offset November’s decline of 0.8 per cent.
“The growth in December was driven by higher sales at building material and garden equipment and supplies dealers,” it said.
Nationally, retail sales were unchanged in December at $51.6 billion after growing 1.1 per cent in November.
“Higher sales at building material and garden equipment and supplies dealers, as well as food and beverage stores were more than offset by lower sales at motor vehicle and parts dealers and gasoline stations. Sales were up in seven of 11 subsectors, representing 49 per cent of retail trade,” said StatsCan, adding that retail sales decreased 0.2 per cent in the fourth quarter, after increasing 0.3 per cent in the third quarter.
“On an unadjusted basis, retail e-commerce sales were $2.6 billion in December, accounting for 4.7 per cent of total retail trade, the largest share on record. On a year-over-year basis, retail e-commerce increased 31.5 per cent, while total unadjusted retail sales rose 2.7 per cent.”
Statistics Canada said Canadian retailers finished 2019 with $615 billion in sales, up 1.6 per cent from 2018. However, this marked the lowest annual movement in retail sales since 2009 (-2.9 per cent), when Canada was in the midst of an economic downturn. Sales in Alberta decreased 0.9 per cent following a 2.0 per cent increase in 2018.
Sales at cannabis stores totalled $1.2 billion during the first full calendar year of legal marijuana sales, said the report. Also, the pace of e-commerce sales growth accelerated to 22.4 per cent in 2019, with online sales from store and non-store retailers reaching a combined $22.1 billion. The share of retail e-commerce as a percentage of total retail sales continued to grow in 2019, reaching 3.5 per cent.
“December’s print caps off the worst yearly performance for Canadian retail sales since 2009. Indeed, for the year as a whole, nominal sales were up just 1.6 per cent, with volumes barely eking out any growth (0.4 per cent).This is particularly disappointing in the context of surging population growth seen across Canada this year,” said Omar Abdelrahman, Economist with TD Economics.
“In terms of growth implications, we maintain our view that the Canadian economy likely hit a standstill in the fourth quarter of last year. What is more, December’s weak retail sales print, combined with other recent lackluster releases (for example, manufacturing sales) provide a soft handoff to 2020. The only factors providing some relief in December’s data are the concentration of the weakness in a small number of provinces and spending categories, and the modest upward revisions to the prior month.
“We’ve been getting mixed signals on drivers of consumer spending of late. Healthy labour market and wage gains, and a recovering housing market should provide a lift to consumer spending. However, the sector remains caught between these tailwinds and rising household debt servicing costs. Consumer spending is one area that the Bank of Canada has been watching closely and the persistence of recent soft trends makes a rate cut more likely.”
Mario Toneguzzi is a business reporter in Calgary.
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