Canada's retail sales fall 2.5% in July for 1st time in 7 months

By Ovunc Kutlu

ANKARA (AA) - Canada's retail sales fell 2.5% to $61.3 billion in July, marking the first decline in seven months, according to figures released by Statistics Canada on Friday.

The market expectation for the figure was to show a decrease of 2%, while retail sales rose 1.1% in June.

"Sales were down in nine of 11 subsectors, representing 94.5% of retail trade," Statistics Canada said in a statement.

"The decrease was driven by lower sales at gasoline stations and clothing and clothing accessories stores," it added.

While retail e-commerce sales were down 0.7% in July, they were up 4.3% year-on-year to $3.2 billion in July, accounting for 4.7% of total retail trade.