Urgent.. Retail sales data in Canada is negative and lower than market expectations.

Data released by Statistics Canada on Thursday indicated a negative performance of retail sales data in Canada for the month of December, as retail sales contracted by 0.7% on a monthly basis, which was lower than expectations that predicted a growth of 0.1%. The previous reading showed a growth of 0.1% in November.
On the other hand, core retail sales (which exclude automobile sales) recorded a change of 0.0% in December, which was higher than market expectations that indicated a growth of 0.2%, following a rise of 0.6% in November.
It is worth noting that this indicator measures the change in the total value of inflation-adjusted sales at the retail level. Furthermore, this indicator serves as a measure of the value of goods sold by retailers based on a sample of retail stores of various types and sizes, and the data includes all sales made through the internet.