Canada: Retail sales likely to increase by 1.4% in March - TDS

Analysts at TD Securities suggest that Canadian retail sales are expected to see a large increase (TD: 1.4%, consensus: 1.2%) in March due to a combination of strong motor vehicle sales and a sharp increase in gasoline prices.

Key Quotes

“The latter should help to support ex. auto sales, where TD looks for a 1.3% advance. Meanwhile, volumes should underperform the nominal series with a 0.8% advance which would leave them little changed for Q1 as a whole.”