January 2022 year-to-date retail trade was up by 7.9% over the same period in 2021.  

• Sub-sectors that posted increases: Used car dealers (31.2%), Gasoline stations (24.5%), Electronics and appliance stores (1.1%), Building material and garden equipment and supplies dealers (31.5%), Health and personal care stores (7.2%), Clothing and clothing accessories stores (6.0%), Sporting goods, hobby, book, and music stores (25.1%), Grocery stores (12.9%), General merchandise stores (7.4%), and all other (6.9%).  
• Sub-sectors that posted decreases: new car dealers (-7.9%), Furniture and home furnishings stores (-13.3%), and Beer, wine and liquor stores (-5.1%).

With new vehicles in short supply, January 2022 year-to-date new motor vehicle (units) sales were down -10.6% from January 2021. New minivans, sport-utility vehicles, light and heavy trucks, vans and buses sales were down -8.8%, while new passenger cars sales were also down -28.3%.

January 2022 year-to-date restaurant receipts were up 11.6% over the same period in 2021.  

• Within restaurant receipts, all categories posted gains including Special food services (35.7%), Drinking places (alcoholic beverages) (122.7%), Full-service restaurants (3.0%), and Limited-service eating places (11.0%).

January 2022 year-to-date manufacturing sales were up by 46.9% over the same period in 2021.

• Sub-sectors that posted increases were Food manufacturing sales (76.8%), Machinery manufacturing sales (70.7%), and All other Manufacturing sales (36.7%).  Sub-sectors that posted decreases were limited to Fabricated metal product manufacturing sales (-3.0%).

January 2022 year-to-date wholesale trade was up 33.6% over the same period in 2021.

• Sub-sectors that posted increases were: Farm product merchant wholesalers (47.9%), Food, beverage and tobacco merchant wholesalers (12.1%), Agricultural supplies merchant wholesalers (87.4%), Building material and supplies merchant wholesalers (2.8%).
• Sub-sectors that posted decreases were: Machinery, equipment and supplies merchant wholesalers (-7.8%), and all other (-1.0%).

Total international merchandise exports were up 21.3% year-to-date to February 2022 over February 2021.  

• Sub-sectors that posted increases were Energy products (79.7%), Metal ores and non-metallic minerals (105.6%), Basic and industrial chemical, plastic and rubber products (36.5%), Forestry products and building and packaging materials (1.4%), Industrial machinery, equipment and parts (32.9%), Motor vehicles and parts (1.8%), and Special transactions (13.6%).  
• Sub-sectors that posted decreases were Farm, fishing and intermediate food products (-22.0%), Metal and non-metallic mineral products (-40.9%), Electronic and electrical equipment and parts (-19.1%), Aircraft and other transportation equipment and parts (-29.3%), and Consumer goods (-24.9%).

Construction activity has been driven by strong non-residential sectors.  Year-to-date March 2022 construction employment was up by 4,767 positions or 12.3% from the same period in 2021.     

Total year-to-date March housing starts were down by -416 units or -43.6% over the same period in 2021.  This was due to higher borrowing costs and a surge in apartment unit starts in March 2021.  

• Year-to-date increases: observed in singles (12 units or 4.7%) and row (12 units or 19.7%).  
• Year-to-date decreases: semi-detached (-23 units or -52.3%) and apartment and other types (-417 units or -70.6%).

February 2022 year-to-date building permits are up 26.2% over the same period in 2021.

• Sub-sectors that posted increases: industrial (213.0%), commercial (39.5%), and institutional and governmental (282.9%).  
• Sub-sectors that posted decreases: residential permits (-12.5%).

March 2022 year-to-date employment in Information, culture and recreation was up 5,300 positions or 41.4% over the same period in 2021.

July 2021 year-to-date average weekly earnings in Information and cultural industries were up 6.6%.

The Q4 2021 Provincial population was up 0.23% or 2,703 persons over 2020 Q4 to 1,180,867. Contributing to population growth was a modest bounce-back in international immigration to 3,076 from 1,769 in the previous quarter and a higher than expected natural increase (births less deaths). Net inter-provincial migration has been negative every quarter since Q2 2013. 

After decreasing by -5.2% in 2020, Saskatchewan’s real GDP expanded by 3.8% in 2021. According to the Conference Board of Canada it in December 2021 forecast, the province's real GDP is forecasted to grow by 4.3% in 2022.

With the post pandemic recovery in full swing in most jurisdictions, and with the Ukraine conflict further adding upward pressure on prices, the Bank of Canada raised its benchmark rate twice in the last two months.  The benchmark rate was raised to 0.5 percent on March 2^nd then to 1.0 percent on April 13, 2022.  Inflation is now being viewed as widely entrenched.  This rate hike is up from the floor of 0.25 percent it held for much of the COVID-19 pandemic; these were the central bank’s first rate hikes since October 2018.