For the fourth month in a row, retails sales in Saskatchewan were up in January. The latest numbers, released by Statistics Canada Friday, showed retail sales totaled just over $1.7 billion, an increase of 2.0 percent from December. Year over year, retail sales in the province were up by 4.8 percent. 

The increase comes as nationally, retail sales were down by 1.1 percent. This was due in part to large drops in retail sales in Quebec and Ontario as stricter measures to curb the spread of COVID-19 were implemented.  

In Saskatchewan, retail sales are also up by 33.7 percent from April of 2020, the first full month of the state of emergency, and public health orders, that were put in place as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.