Canada retail sales flat, cementing October rate pause

Canadian consumers are tightening their purse strings, cementing a case for the Bank of Canada to hold interest rates steady next week.

Receipts for retailers were flat in September, according to an advance estimate from Statistics Canada released Friday. That followed a 0.1 per cent decline a month earlier, which matched the median estimate from economists in a Bloomberg survey.

Sales were down in six of nine subsectors, including car dealers, and furniture, electronics and appliances retailers.

Excluding autos, retail sales rose 0.1 per cent, versus expectations for a decrease of 0.1 per cent.