Statistics Canada reported Tuesday that sales were up 2.4% during the month to $44.6-billion, marking the fifth straight monthly gain.
Most economists had expected sales to rise by between 0.5% and 0.6% during the month.
Seventeen of 21 industries reporting higher sales in January, with strong gains in British Columbia, Quebec and Ontario.
Industry Minister Tony Clement Wednesday also credited lower taxes brought in by his government and efforts to reduce companies' dependence on exporting to the United States with helping them adapt.
“All of these things have a cumulative effect that we expect will more than overcome the fact of the high dollar,” Mr. Clement told reporters. “The new normal is that you don't just rely on a low Canadian dollar as your productivity edge and I think most businesses have gotten that point now.”
The good news in the economy keeps coming.
4 comments:
This is one of the benefits of having reduced the sales tax. More money to spend means more money spent.
Iceman - it's funny - people complain that it's only a few cents, but over time, that few cents is much more money in our pockets that the government isn't taking from us.
Those who complain don't cite studies that show the poor suffer the most with higher G.S.T.
The logic for the left is to tax and than return it through special deals.
My view is leave it at source, save money on less regulations and policy to return the taxation.
The logic is to tax the middle, higher income earners, spenders and send their wealth to the poor.
History shows the programs they set up the tax they collect is diverted for other projects.
I don't think the average person has any idea of how much the spend on gst over a year.
Just did some calculations on some of my clients, and recorded the gst paid on utilities, recreational costs (movies, restaurants and other) and it comes to over 600.00 per year. And that is at 5%. They had no big purchases, like a tv, or other electronics. Just utility bills, gas, newspapers, and other small purchases. This does not include what they pay at grocery stores. And, yes, some items from grocery stores do have gst on them.
And, these people had incomes around 30,000.
Think what it would be if they bought a car/house/or other major purchase.
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