Rising by 1.4%, seasonally-adjusted retail sales in Alberta improved for the third month in a row in December.

Month-over-month sales rose by 0.5% nationally with revenue down in six provinces.

Year-over-year growth was also stronger in Alberta at 9.7% compared to 7.0% for the country as a whole (unadjusted).

Most sub-sectors in Alberta posted year-over-year growth in revenue with specialty food stores posting the largest increase at 34.0%.

Meanwhile, sales among automobile dealers in the province fell by 5.3% compared to the previous December.

Annual sales in Alberta were 6.7% higher than in 2021 and 19.0% above the level set in 2020 during the first year of the pandemic.

National sales were 8.1% higher in 2022 than the year before and 20.8% above the total in 2020.

Answer to the previous trivia question: A loaf of bread in Berlin that cost 4 marks at the end of 1921 cost 201 billion marks in November 1923.

Today’s trivia question: How many Costco stores are there in Canada?