Cross-border shopping is a small fraction of overall retail: StatsCan

Travellers line up at the Canada-U.S. border in this file photo.

OTTAWA - Statistics Canada says cross-border shopping by Canadians in the United States almost doubled between 2006 and 2012, but still accounted for less than two per cent of total Canadian retail sales.

The agency says Canadians spent $4.7 billion shopping in the United States in 2006.

Apart from a decline in 2009, the total has increased every year since then, hitting $8 billion in 2012.

Overall retail trade sales in Canada also increased every year from 2006 to 2012 except in 2009, when there was a 2.9 per cent decline.

Even with that one-year drop, annual sales rose to $468 billion in 2012 from $389 billion in 2006.

Cross-border shopping by Canadians in the United States accounted for 1.7 per cent of total Canadian retail sales in 2012.