The rise in gasoline prices has led to an increase in retail sales in Canada.

After experiencing a strong first quarter, retail sales in Canada continued to grow last month, but skyrocketing gasoline prices seem to be increasingly eroding household budgets. Preliminary estimates released by Statistics Canada on Friday showed that retail sales in April increased by 0.6% compared to the previous month, following a 0.9% increase in March. The March data was higher than the median forecast of economists surveyed, which predicted a 0.6% increase. The data showed that retail sales in the first quarter of this year grew by 2.1%, marking the seventh consecutive quarter of expansion and significantly higher than the 0.4% growth seen in the last three months of 2025. In terms of volume, retail sales in the first quarter still grew by 1.2%, but the historically high gasoline prices in March played an important role in this. Statistics Canada did not provide specific details on the preliminary values for April, and the estimate was based on feedback data from 52.1% of surveyed businesses. However, the March report indicated that the rising prices at gas stations may be increasingly squeezing other consumer spending, and the strong momentum in consumer demand seen in the previous two months appears to be weakening.