Canadian Consumer Confidence Rises

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Jun 13, 2012, 06:45 ET

WINNIPEG, June 13, 2012 /CNW/ - Consumer confidence is up in Canada in the latest quarter. Today, the index stands at 79.0, compared to 75.3 in February. This represents the second consecutive wave of growth in consumer confidence.

In total, 25% of Canadians believe they will be better off financially a year from now. Conversely, 15% feel they will be worse off a year from now. This split remains unchanged from February, and has stayed consistent since last November.
Nationally, 15% of Canadians see good times ahead for the economy in the next twelve months. Conversely, 19% see bad times over this same period. Pessimism is down from February, when 22% saw bad times ahead in the short-term.
Just over four in ten (46%) believe there will be good times financially for the Canadian economy in the next 5 years, while 41% believe there will be unemployment and recession over this period. This represents a more positive outlook than in February when the split was 42%-45%.
Half (50%) believe that now is a good time to make a major purchase. Nationally, 35% believe it is a bad time to make such a purchase. In November, this split was 43%-38%.
In terms of how people perceive the last year, 19% indicated they were better off financially compared to a year ago, while 25% feel they are worse off.

	Better off a year from now	Worse off a year from now
One year outlook	25%	15%
	Good times	Bad times
1 year economic outlook	15%	19%
	Good times	Bad times
5 year economic outlook	46%	41%
	Good time	Bad time
Making a purchase	50%	35%
	Better off than a year ago	Worse off than a year ago
Compared to one yr ago	19%	25%

According to Senior Vice-President Doug Anderson; "While Canadian consumer confidence continues a modest rebound, the finding in the U.S. shows a more striking resurgence. Last August, we found the lowest levels of US consumer confidence for at least the past five years. Now ten months later, we find U.S. confidence is elevated back to levels measured before the 2008 economic crisis. The confidence level in both countries has been in lock-step for each of the last two waves of study."

"Continued strength in consumer confidence is very encouraging for all Canadians," said Jack Courtney, Assistant Vice-President, Advanced Financial Planning at Investors Group. "The positive outlook makes it a little easier for Canadians to save and invest with long term objectives in mind."

These data were gathered through teleVox, the company's national telephone omnibus survey for two weeks from May 17-28 2012 just over 2,000 completes. A sample of the same size has a margin of error of 2.2%, 19 times out of 20.