The annual pace of inflation has reached its highest point since 2003
Canadians have expressed skepticism over policymakers’ ability to pull inflation back to pre-pandemic levels, a trend that could compel the Bank of Canada to take stronger action against price pressures, according to new polling by Bloomberg and Nanos Research.
Most Canadians (63.5%) said that they have given up hope that inflation will moderate from the feverish levels it has seen over the past few months, while 30.6% are expecting inflation to return to more reasonable levels.
Latest data from Statistics Canada placed the annual pace of inflation at 4.7%, the highest in 18 years.
This pessimism has become particularly apparent when it comes to Canadians’ expectations for the economy, Nanos Research said.
“With an increased focus on inflation and on the new Omicron [variant] emerging, the proportion of Canadians who believe the Canadian economy will be weaker in the next six months has hit a 10-month high,” said Nik Nanos, chief data scientist at Nanos research.
Only 25.38% of Canadians polled said that they are looking forward to a stronger economy in the next six months, while 38.57% are bracing for weakness and 28.21% are expecting a stagnant economy.
More than half of respondents (56.57%) said that they are expecting home prices in their neighbourhoods to increase in the next six months, while 30.22% believe that prices will remain static and 8.76% said that they are preparing for lower prices.
