LBM, garden sales rise in December

StatCan reports that retail sales in December posted their largest decline since April’s low, falling by 3.4 percent to $53.4 billion due to the effects of the pandemic. LBM and garden sales totalled $3.95 billion, up nearly 20 percent from the previous December but edging down by 2.3 percent on a monthly basis. Sales were down in 9 out of 11 subsectors, representing 83.6 percent of retail sales. In volume terms, retail sales fell 3.6 percent in December.