Canada's retail sales flatlined in the first quarter of 2024

Canadian consumers haven’t tightened their belts this much in nearly a year, and there are no signs of spending growth since the start of 2024.

Receipts for retailers were unchanged in March, according to an advance estimate from Statistics Canada released Wednesday. That followed a 0.1 per cent drop in February, missing expectations for a 0.1 per cent gain in a Bloomberg survey.

Taken together with the 0.3 per cent plunge in January sales, the figures point to a flat reading in the first three months of the year, the weakest pace since the second quarter of 2023.

After the release, yields on two-year Canadian government bonds fell about three basis points to 4.25 per cent, while the loonie weakened about 0.3 per cent to $1.372 per U.S. dollar as of 9:08 a.m. Ottawa time.