The Canadian economy has been slowly recovering from the recent recession and many businesses are getting back on their feet after suffering financial blows which resulted in employee reductions and severe cost cutting. However, the nation's retailers have been helping conditions get back on track, as a recent study highlighted the importance of these merchants for Canada's productivity.

The Ottawa Citizen reports that according to a report by Deloitte, productivity throughout the country grew an average of 0.8 percent between 2000 and 2010. The main contributor to this increase was the retail sector, as Deloitte revealed that these businesses increased their productivity by 3.4 percent between 2000 and 2008. Authors of the study state that with a lack of government protection and the risk of failing at their ventures, Canadian retailers are required to develop innovative products and work harder to beat out the competition. These are some of the elements Deloitte believes led to the boost in the sector's productivity, the news source reports.

Unfortunately, retail sales throughout Canada increased only slightly for September, which are the latest results available from Statistics Canada. Bloomberg Businessweek writes that economists had predicted higher sales gains than the 0.1 percent growth that took place throughout the month. 

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Wednesday, December 5th, 2012 at 4:19 am .