Dive Summary:

• Canadians driving to the U.S. rose 0.7% to 2.8 million trips in February 2013. Many of these traveling are bargain shoppers with their sights set on cities as Seattle and Buffalo.
• The news comes despite many popular U.S. brands such as Target, J. Crew and Walmart continue to spread throughout the Canadian mainland.
• “The low level of core inflation, at an average of 1.2 per cent in January and February, reflects muted price pressures across a wide range of goods and services,” Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney said on Wednesday, citing in part increased competition in the retail space.

From the article:

Carney’s comments come alongside the U.S. Federal Reserve’s mention Wednesday in its Beige Book report that sales at malls in upstate New York were “brisk” in March “attributed to Canadian shoppers.” Just how much of an impact the increased competition in the retail space is having on consumer prices will be known tomorrow, when Statistics Canada releases its Consumer Price Index (CPI) data for March.