Retail growth “slows to a crawl”: Strapagiel

TORONTO — Retail sales in Canada are headed for a 10-year low, according to analyst Ed Strapagiel, with the latest StatCan data showing a year-over-year increase of just 0.7% for the three months ending November 2019. “While an uptick was reported in the media for November alone, this was in comparison to the previous month, October 2019, which was particularly weak,” he writes. “For retail sales numbers, one month does not a trend make.” The 12-month trend, he continues, has been in decline since peaking two years ago, while the three-month trend “continues to underperform even that, indicating more weakness ahead.”