After months of steady gains, the growth of licit Canadian weed sales came to a near standstill in September, according to Statistics Canada.
In its monthly release of retail trade data on Friday, the agency said September retail cannabis sales were $354.7 million.
That number is just a hair above $354.0 in August, a figure which StatsCan revised significantly from the $356.9 million reported a month ago.
That update alters the month-over-month outlook for B.C. in particular, where the August sales figure was revised to $49.7 million from $52.3 million. StatsCan says the change was within its normal range for revising past data.
Read more: BC beats Quebec in weed retail for first time — August sales hit $357M
Sales in thousands of dollars. Chart by Mugglehead via StatsCan data
Ontario was the only region with any notable increase in September, with sales climbing nearly 2 per cent to $141.6 million from $139.0 million.
Sales were either flat or fell slightly in every other region.
While StatsCan says overall retail contracted by 0.6 per cent to $56.6 billion in September, led by weak sales in the motor vehicle sector. Core retail fell by 0.3 per cent.
But the agency’s outlook improves for October.
“Given the rapidly evolving economic situation, Statistics Canada is providing an advance estimate of retail sales, which suggests that sales increased 1.0 per cent in October.”
“Owing to its early nature, this figure will be revised. This unofficial estimate was calculated based on responses received from 50.3 per cent of companies surveyed. The average final response rate for the survey over the previous 12 months has been 89.5 per cent.”
Monthly retail trade sales. Chart via StatsCan
Note: Statistics Canada updates its raw data on a monthly basis, so previously reported figures can become outdated as a result. Refer to the most recently reported sales for the most up-to-date information.
nick@mugglehead.com
