Canada August retail sales +0.7% vs +0.2% expected

• Prelim August release was +0.4%
• Prior was -2.5% (revised to -2.2%)
• September prelim estimate -0.5%
• August ex autos +0.7% vs +0.4% expected -- best in 5 months
• Prior ex autos -3.1% (revised to -2.5%)
• Sales up in 6 of 11 subsectors
• Sales ex autos and gas +0.9%

This is one of the larger misses since Statistics Canada started releasing preliminary estimates. The revisions are also higher too. Notably though, there's a slowdown in the September preliminary estimate and much of the increase was in food and in grocery stores, which represents inflation Inflation Inflation is defined as a quantitative measure of the rate in which the average price level of goods and services in an economy or country increases over a period of time. It is the rise in the general level of prices where a given currency effectively buys less than it did in prior periods.In terms of assessing the strength or currencies, and by extension foreign exchange, inflation or measures of it are extremely influential. Inflation stems from the overall creation of money. This money is m Inflation is defined as a quantitative measure of the rate in which the average price level of goods and services in an economy or country increases over a period of time. It is the rise in the general level of prices where a given currency effectively buys less than it did in prior periods.In terms of assessing the strength or currencies, and by extension foreign exchange, inflation or measures of it are extremely influential. Inflation stems from the overall creation of money. This money is m Read this Term not activity. Sporting goods stores were also strong as kids returned to full activities following the pandemic.

On the margin, this is more likely to push the BOC towards a larger hike and maintaining a hawkish stance but it's not as strong as the headline suggests.