OTTAWA, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Canada's online sales soared to 62.7 billion Canadian dollars (62.7 billion U.S. dollars) in 2007, a growth of 26 percent from the year 2006, federal agency Statistics Canada said Thursday.

    This is the sixth consecutive year that Canada's online sales have increased at a double-digit pace.

    However, e-commerce still represents a relatively small fraction of total economic activity.

    Online sales of private sector firms accounted for just under two percent of total operating revenue last year, an increase from less than one percent five years earlier.

    While online sales increased, the proportion of private sector companies that sold goods and services online remained stable at about eight percent, while about 16 percent of the public sector reported e-commerce sales.

    E-commerce by private sector firms increased 25 percent to 58.2billion Canadian dollars (58.2 billion U.S. dollars), while public sector e-commerce rose 30 percent to almost 4.5 billion.

    In the private sector, business-to-business sales accounted for62 percent of online sales in 2007, down from 68 in 2006. The proportion of online business-to-consumer sales climbed to 38 percent from 32.