Home > About us > Media Releases - 2008 > Consumer Confidence Falls

Consumer Confidence Falls

The latest Harris Decima Investors Group measure of Canadian Consumer Confidence reveals that the economic turmoil of recent months has taken a major toll on consumer confidence.

The overall index dropped to its lowest point since September 2001, in line with deterioration seen south of the border.

The five components that make up the index revealed a pattern of weakening confidence. All five indicators showed rising negative sentiment compared to results found in February, 2008.

The steepest increase in pessimism was for the one year economic outlook and, alongside it, consumers' inclination to make a major purchase. While pessimism about the five year outlook also grew, the ascent has been more gradual. Today, the gap between pessimism about next year and five years out is 10 percentage points, more typically that gap is at least 20 points wide. The number of people who say now is a bad time to make a major purchase has almost doubled since the fall. Despite the increasing concern about the macro economy, the number of people who say they will personally be worse off next year than this year remains fairly low, at 20%.

According to Harris/Decima President Bruce Anderson "These shifts are the most sizeable we have seen in recent years, and reflect a nervousness that, if not pervasive, is certainly spreading. What remains notable, despite this anxiety, is the fact that their remains a tendency to anticipate that this will be more of a shorter term than longer term problem, and more a challenge for other people than for the individual respondent. Many people seem to feel they will escape personal economic harm."

"The decline in consumer confidence appears to be a reaction to recent volatility in the stock market and related events," said Jack Courtney, Assistant Vice-President of Advanced Financial Planning at Investors Group. "Canadians should not let their emotions rule the day. Well balanced and diversified financial plans are constructed to withstand economic downturn - a hasty, emotional decision today could have unwanted long term effects in the future."

Each week, Harris/Decima interviews just over 1000 Canadians through teleVox, the company's national omnibus survey. These data were gathered May 8th through 18th 2008 for a sample of just over 2,000 respondents. The poll's margin of error is 2.2%, 19 times out of 20.

For more information contact:
Bruce Anderson
CEO
Tel: (613) 230-2200
banderson@decima.com 		Ron Arnst
Media Relations
(204) 956-3364
ron.arnst@investorsgroup.com