APRIL SALES RISE 0.9 PER CENT TO $44.3B: STATSCAN

Retail sales in Canada climbed in April, boosted by higher prices at the gas pump, Statistics Canada said Wednesday. The agency said retail sales rose 0.9 per cent to $ 44.3 billion in April, in line with the expectations of economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters and reversing a drop of 0.8 per cent in March. However, excluding sales at gasoline stations, which climbed 6.0 per cent, retail sales were up just 0.4 per cent for the month. Bank of Montreal senior economist Benjamin Reitzes noted that volumes rose just 0.1 per cent as prices were meaningfully higher in the month. “With the manufacturing and wholesale data already in hand, April GDP looks to be on track for a 0.1 per cent to 0.2 per cent increase,” Reitzes wrote in a note to clients. “While that’s a decent start to the second quarter, recall that the ( Alberta) wildfires are going to weigh very heavily on May GDP and, in turn, the quarter.” Retail sales were up in seven of 11 subsectors.