Paul Martin's Business Update - June 23rd, 2014

With the province’s population growing more than 1,500 a month, the impact of the new arrivals is clearly evident at the local mall.

Updated figures on retail volumes – tallying sales from April – were up a few million dollars compared to March. That is notable because there was one less retail day in April. Total sales were just a whisker under $1.6 billion for the month, about 6 percentage points higher than April of last year. That increase was above the national average, one of only three provinces to make that milestone.

Population growth is a key factor is in this as more people translate into more purchasing power as a greater number of people patronize local stores. Last week STatsCan estimated the province’s population had risen by more than 5,000 in the first three months of the year, a pace that pushes us past 20,000 annually. It’s been a few years since we topped the 20,000 mark on an annualized basis, suggesting that not only is the number of residents rising, the pace of growth is actually increasing.