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June 20, 2025RETAIL TRADE, APRIL 2025 Monthly (seasonally adjusted, April 2025 vs March 2025)
In Nova Scotia retail trade decreased 2.0% to $1,869 million. Nationally, retail trade increased 0.3% to $70.1 billion. Five provinces reported growth in retail trade, led by Saskatchewan. New Brunswick reported the steepest decline.
Year over year (April 2025 vs April 2024)
Nova Scotia retail trade increased 3.5% in April compared to the same month last year. Nationally, retail trade was up 5.0% year-over-year. Nine provinces reported year-over-year increases in retail trade, led by Newfoundland and Labrador. Only Prince Edward Island reported a decline.
Year to date (January-April 2025 vs January-April 2024)
Nova Scotia retail trade increased 3.6% in January-April compared to the same period last year. Nationally, retail trade was up 5.2% year-to-date. All provinces reported year-to-date increases in retail trade, led by Newfoundland and Labrador. Prince Edward Island reported the slowest growth.
In dollar terms, motor vehicles/parts ($1.836 billion), food/beverage ($1.289 million), gas stations ($979 million) and general merchandise stores ($885 million) contributed the most to Nova Scotia's retail sales in January-April 2025.
The largest increases in percentage terms were reported in motor vehicles/parts, and health/personal care. Gas stations, and building materials/garden supply stores reported declines.
Trends
In recent months, Nova Scotia retail sales have been more volatile than the Canadian average (common for a smaller province). Nova Scotia's reported three months of increasing growth in November through January followed by a swinging-door of declines-recovery in February through April, but trending up.
E-Commerce
In April 2025, Canada's ecommerce sales increased 3.6% compared to the previous month, increasing to $4.37 billion, or to 6.2% of total retail sales.
Source: Statistics Canada. Table: 20-10-0056-01, Monthly retail trade sales by province and territory (x 1,000)
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