Canadian consumer spending rose before Christmas

The newest "Quarterly Spending Report" by Canadian credit and debit card processor Moneris Solutions shows Canadian consumer spending rose by 3.8% on a year-over-year basis in Q4 of 2014.

Released Monday, the report shows that strong holiday buying helped to boost the sales, which followed three consecutive quarters of stagnant growth.

Some of the standout numbers in the report include:

• spending across Canada rose by 3.5% in October, 6.1% in November and 4% in December
• sales at fast food restaurants and dine-in restaurants both increased (7.8% and 5.4%, respectively) compared to the same period in 2013
• of the total spending processed by Moneris, 63.3% came from credit card spending, and 36.7% of it came from debit card spending
• once again, Dec. 23 was the busiest shopping day of the year across retail