Canadians' Confidence Virtually Unchanged in March: Survey

TORONTO, March 15, 2012 /CNW/ - Canadians' consumer confidence is in a holding pattern and remained virtually unchanged in March.  According to the latest consumer confidence survey conducted by TNS, the Index measured in at 95.2 this month, almost identical to the 95.1 it posted in February.

"It looks like Canadians have tuned out for now" said Norman Baillie-David, Vice President of TNS in Canada and director of the marketing and social research firm's monthly tracking study.  "Consumer confidence hasn't budged in a month, largely because the economy has taken a back seat in the headlines to Robocalls, the Michael Rafferty trial, and to a lesser extent, Syria and the Middle East. In fact, there hasn't been any dramatic news about the economy, and the result is that Canadians' confidence hasn't changed in a month."

The Present Situation Index, which measures how people feel about the economy right now, rose slightly but not significantly, from 92.4 in February to 93.9 in March..  "Canadians don't feel any better or worse about their lot in life right now.  It's pretty stable." continued Mr. Baillie-David

The Expectations Index, which measures people's outlook for the economy six months from now, also remained virtually the same, dropping only slightly 101.6 to 100.1.  "This Index is sitting at its long-term average (100).  Canadians have either grown weary or blasé about the up and down news, and have stopped riding the roller-coaster.  This can be a good or a bad sign"  added Mr. Baillie-David. "On the one hand, it will take more than just a bit of bad news to shake Canadians, but on the other hand, it will take longer and sustained good news about the economy to convince Canadians to start feeling really good again."

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 remained almost at exactly the same level that it was a month ago, inching down from 92.2 to 92.0, meaning that Canadians don't feel it's either a necessarily a good or not a good time to buy a big ticket item.

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 March 5 and March 9, 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

TNS Canada (formerly known as TNS Canadian Facts) is the Canadian arm of TNS. 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.

About Kantar

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.

For further information, please visit us at www.kantar.com

For more information on these results please contact:

Norman Baillie-David
Vice President
[phone] x101
[e-mail]