Bad European News Drags Confidence Back Down: Survey

TORONTO, June 21, 2012 /CNW/ - Two weeks of constant bad economic news from Europe looks to have halted an encouraging jump in Canadian Consumer Confidence.  According to the latest consumer confidence survey conducted by TNS, the Index fell back 2.4 points, from 98.8 to 96.4, virtually erasing the gains made during the month of May.

"Just when it looked like Canadians were seeing some reason for optimism about the economy, bad news about Spain's banks, uncertainty about Greece's election, and our Prime Minister's public war of words with European leaders about how to handle it, all conspired to turn Canadians off" explained Norman Baillie-David, Vice President of TNS in Canada and Director of the Marketing and Social research firm's monthly tracking study.  "Last month we were looking at Canadians seeing an optimistic summer, but unfortunately that was the top of the roller-coaster ride, and June saw us riding back down."

The Present Situation Index, which measures how people feel about the economy right now, also fell back in June, more than three points from 99.2 in May to 96.1 in June.

The Expectations Index, which measures people's outlook for the economy six months from now, also fell by almost three and a half points, from 102.7 back under the "100-mark" (the long-term average) to 99.3.

The Buy Index, which measures the extent to which Canadians' feel that now is a good time to purchase a "big ticket item", such as a car or a major household appliance, is perhaps the most important of the sub-indices, because if people feel now is a good time to buy, they may act on it, which will provide the real economic stimulus.  The Buy Index is the only sub-index to show some resilience to the other declining trends.  The Buy Index fell, but only very slightly (not a statistically significant change), from 94.2 to 93.8.

"Despite the bad economic news giving Canadians cause for more concern this month, that hasn't translated into putting off major purchases.  Although it didn't jump as high last month either, which indicates that Canadians may be swayed emotionally by what's going on, but they're not letting those sentiments have a big impact on major purchase decisions", continued Mr. Baillie-David.

Consumer Confidence Index tracks Canadians' attitudes about the economy each month and is part of a global study conducted by TNS in 18 countries. Three indices are produced each month to show how confidence in the economy is changing: Present Situation Index; an Expectations Index; and a Buy Index.

The Canadian fieldwork is conducted using the firm's national bi-weekly telephone omnibus service, TNS Express Telephone.  A total of 1,015 nationally representative Canadian adults were interviewed between June 11 and June 14, 2012. For a survey sample of this size, the margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

About TNS and Kantar

TNS (formerly known as TNS Canadian Facts) is the Canadian arm of TNS Global. TNS advises clients on specific growth strategies around new market entry, innovation, brand switching and stakeholder management, based on long-established expertise and market-leading solutions. With a presence in over 80 countries, TNS has more conversations with the world's consumers than anyone else and understands individual human behaviours and attitudes across every cultural, economic and political region of the world.

TNS is part of Kantar, one of the world's largest insight, information and consultancy groups.

Please visit www.tnsglobal.com for more information. 

Kantar is one of the world's largest insight, information and consultancy groups. By uniting the diverse talents of its 13 specialist companies, the group aims to become the pre-eminent provider of compelling and inspirational insights for the global business community. Its 28,500 employees work across 100 countries and across the whole spectrum of research and consultancy disciplines, enabling the group to offer clients business insights at each and every point of the consumer cycle. The group's services are employed by over half of the Fortune Top 500 companies. 

on these results please contact:

Norman Baillie-David
Vice President
[phone] x101
[email protected]

please visit us at www.kantar.com