Nearly half of Canadians harbour doubts about the economy's near-future strength
Canadian consumer confidence is still at remarkable lows amid sustained domestic and global economic uncertainty, according to the latest poll conducted by Nanos Research for Bloomberg.
As of the week ending February 17, nearly 49% of Canadians indicated a belief that the economy will become weaker over the next six months, mirroring the sustained lows seen in the Bloomberg Nanos Consumer Confidence Index.
While the latest index level of 45.74 represented a slight improvement from the 45.33 seen four weeks prior, it was still far below the 12-month high of 59.88.
“Consumer confidence continues to track in net negative territory with a score less than 50 on the 100-point scale that makes up the BNCCI,” said Nik Nanos of Nanos Research. “Index scores are lower among individuals under 30 compared to all other age cohorts.”
Only 14.69% of respondents are expecting a stronger economy within the next half-year, while 48.86% are bracing for weaker performance and 29.17% are not expecting anything to change in the economy during that period.
Despite this, a majority of Canadians still expect to keep their jobs over the next year or so. The sub-index on job security stood at 61.23 compared to 61.09 four weeks prior.
Only one in five respondents (20.85%) are expecting an increase in home prices in their neighbourhoods over the next six months, while there was a nearly equal share among those anticipating steady prices (37.52%) and those preparing for price declines (37.24%).
