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December 18, 2020RETAIL TRADE, OCTOBER 2020
MONTH OVER MONTH (seasonally adjusted Oct 2020 to Sep 2020)
- Nova Scotia Retail Trade increased 1.5% to $1.4 billion
- Nationally, Retail Trade increased 0.4% to $54.6 billion
- Seven provinces reported monthly increases in retail trade, with
- British Columbia (2.1%) reporting the largest gain and
- New Brunswick (-4.3%) reporting the largest decline
YEAR OVER YEAR (seasonally adjusted Oct 2020 vs Oct 2019)
- Nova Scotia Retail Trade increased 6.1%
- Nationally, Retail Trade increased 7.5%
- All provinces reported year-over-year increases in retail trade, with
- British Columbia (11.5%) reporting the largest gain
- Newfoundland and Labrador (2.1%) reporting the smallest gain
YEAR TO DATE (seasonally adjusted Jan-Oct 2020 to Jan-Oct 2019)
- Nova Scotia Retail Trade decreased 3.5%
- Nationally, Retail Trade decreased 2.7%
- Three provinces reported year-to-date increase in retail trade led by British Columbia (0.9%) and Manitoba (0.9%)
- Ontario (-4.4%) reported the largest decline
NOVA SCOTIA SECTORS
YEAR TO DATE (Unadjusted Jan-Oct 2020 to Jan-Oct 2019)
Retails sales were up for:
- Electronics increased 2.3%, or $2.9 million
- Building materials increased 13.1%, or $130.3 million
- Food & beverage increased 7.6%, or $223.8 million
- General merchandise increased 10.2%, or $157.2 million
- Miscellaneous stores increased 6.4%, or $23.8 million
Retails sales were down for:
- Motor Vehicle decreased 14.2%, or -$534.4 million
- Furniture decreased 7.7%, or -$26.1 million
- Health decreased 0.1%, or -$0.8 million
- Gas Stations decreased 16.5%, or -$277.3 million
- Clothing decreased 29.3%, or -$131.2 million
- Sporting & Hobbies decreased 9.3%, or -$19.3 million
TRENDS
Canada and Nova Scotia (2013 to 2020)
Nova Scotia's retail sales increased 1.5% month-over-month in October 2020, posting the third consecutive monthly gain. Following the sharp declines registered in March and April, retail sales in Nova Scotia are now 4.3% above its pre-pandemic level of February 2020.
National retail sales continued to rebound for the sixth consecutive month and increased 0.4% to $54.6 billion in October. With October’s gain, retail sales in Canada are 4.5% above the February 2020 level.
Given the constantly changing economic conditions, Statistics Canada provided an advance estimate of retail sales for November. According to this advanced estimate, national retail sales were relatively unchanged in November 2020. This figure will be revised, and actual data will be published on January 22, 2021.
All provincial monthly retail sales are above pre-pandemic levels. Manitoba leads all the other provinces with a 9.5% increase above its pre-pandemic level. New Brunswick has gained the least (+3.7%).
E-COMMERCE
Canada (unadjusted, October 2020)
- In October, Canada's retail e-commerce sales declined 3.4% to $3.1 billion, and accounted for 5.2% of total retail sales.
- The share of e-commerce sales in total retail sales declined 0.3 percentage points from the previous month but was up 1.8 percentage points year-over-year.
- On a year-over-year basis, unadjusted retail e-commerce sales increased 67.7%
TABLES & SELECTED FIELDS
Statistics Canada Citations
Table 20-10-0072-01 Retail E-commerce sales, unadjusted (x 1,000)
Table 20-10-0008-01 Retail trade sales by province and territory (x 1,000)
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