The Financial Post reports in its Saturday edition that retail sales rose by 2.5 per cent to $69.6-billion in December, according to Statistics Canada. The Post's Denise Paglinawan writes that this growth exceeded the 1.6-per-cent consensus expectation, with all nine subsectors seeing sales gains. Motor vehicle and parts dealers also reported significant increases. Excluding gasoline and motor vehicle sales, core retail sales also grew by 2.5 per cent after a 1-per-cent decline the previous month. Desjardins economist Maelle Boulais-Preseault says, "The GST/HST break introduced by [Ottawa] on Dec. 15 played a big role in their shopping timeline." CIBC economist Andrew Grantham says that even before accounting for the temporary boost from the GST holiday, consumer spending was clearly improving during the second half of 2024. However, Mr. Grantham says, it appears the spending momentum may be slowing, as December's tax holiday failed to build further into January, which marked a full month for the temporary tax break. He suggests that since nominal sales figures are calculated before tax, the tax reduction should not negatively impact the sales figure, indicating that sales volumes likely also declined in January.