Canadian retail sales dip in July, but August rebound near
Michael Davenport, senior economist at Oxford Economics, described the July decline as “not all that surprising” in comments to BNN Bloomberg.
“Overall, I think the number that stands out is the flash estimate for August, which shows that retail sales likely rebounded quite strongly,” Davenport said.
Sébastien Mc Mahon, chief economist at iA Financial Group, called the July pullback normal macroeconomic payback after a string of gains.
“This is the way it goes in macro data, you have to expect some payback at some point, and we got it in July, but that doesn’t change our ‘strong Canadian economy’ story,” Mc Mahon said.
How should advisors position against slowing Canadian consumer spending?
Despite the August rebound, advisors should not expect momentum to hold. Katherine Judge, executive director and senior economist at CIBC Capital Markets, said sales volumes are on track to grow at roughly four percent annualized in Q3 2026. She warned that elevated gasoline prices will erode discretionary spending power in the near term.
