Canadian retail sales notched up their second straight monthly increase, rising by 0.2 percent in February from January, after big drops in November and December, Statistics Canada said on Thursday. Analysts had predicted sales would remain unchanged from January, but they said the February figures were too ambiguous to point to clear signs of recovery - retail sales fell by 0.3 percent from January in volume terms.
"That takes some of the shine off the headline number," said Charmaine Buskas, an economics strategist at TD Securities. "While it is encouraging that retail sales managed to eke out some gains in February, that theme is unlikely to continue as consumers retrench further." Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said on Wednesday he detected small signs of encouragement about the North American and global economies. But the Bank of Canada cut its growth forecast on Tuesday, saying the Canadian recession would be deeper than it had previously predicted. Retail sales rose 1.8 percent in January after month-on-month declines of 5.0 percent in December and 2.7 percent in November.