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Canadian retail sales rise sequentially in March on increased sales at gasoline stations

Canadian retail sales rose in March. Sequentially, retail sales rose 1.1 percent, after rising 1 percent in the prior month. Consensus expectations were for a rise of 1.2 percent. Excluding out price movements, the picture was less impressive, with volumes rising modestly by 0.3 percent.

Sector wise, retail sales rose in 7 sectors out of 11. Sales at gasoline stations rose 6 percent, driving a large chunk of the overall rise, on the back of increased gasoline prices. Sales were also positive at clothing stores, and encouragingly, at furniture and home furnishing stores and building materials and garden equipment stores. Providing some offset were lower sales at motor vehicle and parts dealers.

Region wise, 9 provinces recorded rise in retail sales. Alberta, Ontario and Quebec mainly drove the rise. Manitoba was the only province that saw retail sales fall in March.

The rise in March was not sufficient to change an overall poor first performance, which ended with nominal retail sales rose modestly by 0.1 percent and volumes dropped 0.1 percent. The March uptick indicates towards rebounding momentum heading into the second quarter, noted TD Economics in a research report. Moreover, some details in the report indicate towards a potentially rebounding domestic demand picture heading into the second quarter.

At 15:00 GMT the FxWirePro's Hourly Strength Index of Canadian Dollar was slightly bullish at 65.3044 while the FxWirePro's Hourly Strength Index of US Dollar was bullish at 95.6122 more details on FxWirePro's Currency Strength Index, visit http://www.fxwirepro.com/currencyindex

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