08:52 AM EST, 11/21/2025 (MT Newswires) -- Retail sales decreased 0.7% to $69.8 billion in September, in line with expectations, while an advance estimate suggests that sales were "relatively unchanged" in October, Statistics Canada said Friday.

On the advance retail indicator, StatsCan said owing to its early nature, this figure will be revised. Today's unofficial estimate was calculated based on responses received from 54.2% of companies surveyed. The average final response rate for the survey over the previous 12 months was 88.8%.

With the September number, BMO Economics in its morning note had forecast that sales likely slipped 0.7% in September, reversing part of the prior-month 1.0% gain. With goods prices rising in the month, BMO was looking for volumes to underperform the headline, and that was the case.

"For September," BMO noted, "this will round out a mixed bag of indicators that saw manufacturing and wholesale rebound, but also saw hours worked pull back. A small increase in monthly GDP would leave Q3 on track for sluggish sub-1% growth."

Scotiabank noted Statcan had advised a month ago that September's reading would decline with consensus estimates around -0.7% m/m SA. "A big caveat is always that Canadian retail sales are a fraction of consumer spending. They include no services unlike, say, the US that at least includes restaurants and bars. Ergo, don't look to retail sales to show much of any impact of the "world" series for one thing," said Scotia's Derek Holt.

On today's data, StatsCan noted sales were down in six of nine subsectors, led by decreases at motor vehicle and parts dealers. Core retail sales-which exclude gasoline stations and fuel vendors and motor vehicle and parts dealers-were relatively unchanged in September.

In volume terms, StatsCan noted retail sales decreased 0.8% in September and that retail sales were up 0.2% in the third quarter. In volume terms, quarterly retail sales were down 0.3%.