Canada Retail Sales Drop 0.3% in August

Canadian retail sales unexpectedly fell in August, due in part to the biggest month-over-month drop in purchases of food and beverages in nearly three years.

The value of retail sales in August declined 0.3% on a seasonally-adjusted basis to 48.93 billion Canadian dollars ($39.21 billion), Statistics Canada said Friday. Market expectations were for a healthy 0.5% gain, according to economists at Royal Bank of Canada. On a year-over-year basis, retail sales rose 6.9%.

Excluding the auto component, August retail receipts fell by a steeper 0.7%.

Sales dropped by a similar 0.7% on a volume, or price-adjusted, basis.

Write to Paul Vieira at paul.vieira@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 20, 2017 08:45 ET (12:45 GMT)