Canada retail sales data show an interesting picture – for the month of November, sales increased by 1.2 percent compared to the previous month. This significantly exceeded expectations, as analysts had anticipated a 1.1 percent decline. Last month's data showed a 1.0 percent decrease.

But there is another detail that draws attention – excluding the oil sector from the retail sales. Here we see a decline of 1.8 percent. Expectations were positive: a 0.1 percent increase. The previous period's figure was also a 0.1 percent increase.

What's going on here? The growth in manufacturing sales looks good at a superficial glance, but the decline in oil-excluded sales indicates that start-up sales are carrying the overall better result. This raises questions about future dynamism.