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Statistics Canada reported that retail sales in Canada rose 1.2% in August to C$74.567 billion, the fifth consecutive monthly increase. Compared with August 2025, sales were 5.4% higher in current dollars. The agency’s release was published October 23, 2026, and labels August estimates preliminary. The headline is a measure of the value of goods sold by retailers; it is not a consumer price index and should not be read as a direct estimate of household purchasing power.
The volume series gives a different, complementary view. Sales measured in chained 2017 dollars increased 1.2% month over month to C$61.204 billion, and were 2.0% above August 2025. Statistics Canada derives volume by adjusting current-dollar sales with price indexes. Current-dollar growth therefore combines changes in quantities and prices, while the volume estimate attempts to isolate quantity changes. Both series are seasonally adjusted, and the agency notes that estimates can be revised as additional survey responses arrive.
Sales rose in all nine retail subsectors during August. Core retail—which excludes motor vehicle and parts dealers, as well as gasoline stations and fuel vendors—increased 1.1% from July and 4.2% from a year earlier. Gasoline stations and fuel vendors illustrate why the distinction between dollars and volume matters: their current-dollar sales rose 1.7% on the month, while their sales volume fell 0.5%. On a year-over-year basis, dollars were up 22.6%, but volume was down 8.8%. Those figures describe the retail category’s sales, not the price paid for a standard basket of fuel or total national fuel consumption.
Online sales increased 1.1% in August to C$5.649 billion, equal to 7.6% of total retail sales. Among provinces, Ontario rose 2.2% and British Columbia 2.1%; Alberta edged down 0.1%. At the metropolitan level, Toronto sales climbed 4.0% and Vancouver’s increased 2.1%. The monthly total advanced in six provinces. These figures describe where retailers booked sales and do not by themselves identify the source of each change, such as new demand, price changes, promotions or shifts in store mix.
Statistics Canada’s advance estimate for September indicated a 0.7% increase, but the agency explicitly cautioned that this preliminary figure was based on responses covering 58.5% of sales, compared with an average final response rate of 86.8% in recent months. It can be revised substantially as late reports are incorporated. The release is useful as a timely indicator of retail activity, but its August values are still estimates and its September number is an early signal. Reading the dollar and volume series together avoids treating fuel-price effects as a broad measure of inflation or treating nominal retail receipts as physical sales volume.