Canadian Retail Sales Fall In November! Is This A Bad Sign?

<p>&nbsp;Retail sales in Canada fell 0.2% in November from October to C$66.61 billion ($49.36 billion), led by declines among food and beverage merchants, and general merchandise stores, Statistics Canada reported Friday. According to flash estimates, sales likely rose 0.8% in December, the agency reported.</p><p><br /></p><p>In November, sales declined in four of the nine subsectors, representing 43.5% of retail trade. In volume terms, retail sales decreased by 0.2%.</p><p><br /></p><p>Retail sales for October increased by 0.7% compared to the previous month (revised to +0.5%).</p><p><br /></p><p>The estimate for November is 0.0%.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Retail sales for October were +0.7% versus expectations of +0.8%.</p><p><br /></p><p>Excluding motor vehicles, it declined by -0.5% compared to expectations of -0.1%,</p><p><br /></p><p>while the previous month without motor vehicles showed an increase of +0.6%.</p><p><br /></p><p>Estimates for December are expected to show an increase of +0.8%.</p>