Canada retail sales rise 1.2% in August, missing 1.3% forecast

The rebound from July's contraction matters more than the small forecast miss, since it suggests the prior decline was a pause rather than the start of a sustained consumer pullback. The gap between the 1.2% print and the 1.3% consensus is minor, but it reinforces a pattern of demand that is recovering without outpacing expectations. For markets tracking consumer resilience, the open question is whether this rebound holds in the next reading or proves as short-lived as July's decline.