Canadian retail sales climbed at a faster-than-expected pace in February, marking the best back-to-back monthly performance since the fall of 2011, Statistics Canada said Tuesday.

In volume terms, however, sales were flat, which means the February advance was largely due to higher prices, in particular for gasoline.

The data agency said retail sales rose 0.8% to 39.55 billion Canadian dollars ($38.54 billion), which beat expectations for a 0.3% gain among traders, according to economists at Royal Bank of Canada.