The Twenty-Four
Strong start
Retail spending was resilient in the first half of 2025
By Siddhartha Bhattacharya 27 August 2025 less than a minute
Seasonally-adjusted retail spending in Alberta has shown an upward trend since September of last year, reaching a record high in January 2025. While there have been some fluctuations, sales have mostly flattened since then and were 0.4% below the January high in June.
ATB consumer Mastercard transactions indicate a similar trend on purchases (excluding motor vehicles) in July.
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Canada’s export story
After significant advances last year, gold has been playing an even larger role in Canada’s export story in 2026. Canada’s recent trade data shows a historic spike in gold exports overseas.
Canadian exports to the United Kingdom are up about 94% compared to the first seven months of last year, while Canada exported almost $1.5 billion in gold to the Netherlands in June, despite not having exported a dollar of gold to the country in the last 24 months.
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Economics News