Consumer Confidence Unsettled

TORONTO, June 10 /CNW/ - The latest Harris/Decima-Investors Group Measure of Consumer Confidence reveals:

    
    -   Short term concern appears to have pushed the overall measure of
        Canadian consumer confidence slightly lower in the latest wave from
        89.0 in February to 85.9 today. In the US, the measure stands at
        73.6, unchanged since February.

    -   Canadians remain confident about both the near and longer term with
        27% saying they believe they will be better off a year from now and
        58% expressing confidence in the economy over the next 5 years.

    -   In terms of how people perceive the last year, 15% indicated they
        were better off financially compared to a year ago, while 23% feel
        they are worse off. This represents a slight shift from February,
        when 17% said they were better off, and 19% said they were worse off.

    -   Canadians remain more likely to see good times financially for
        themselves a year from now than bad. In total, 27% believe they will
        be better off a year from now, down slightly from the 31% recorded in
        the last wave. Just fewer than half this number (13%) believes they
        will be worse off financially a year from now.

    -   One in four Canadians (25%) see good times ahead for the economy in
        the next twelve months, down from the 30% who said so in the last
        wave. Conversely, 15% see bad times over this same period, relatively
        unchanged from the 13% who said so in February.

    -   A majority (58%) believe there will be good times financially for the
        Canadian economy in the next 5 years, while 30% believe there will be
        unemployment and recession over this period. This split remains
        relatively consistent with the 60%-28% split recorded in the previous
        wave.

    -   A majority (53%) remain of the view that now is a good time to make a
        major purchase. This is up slightly from the 50% who said so in
        February. Nationally, 30% believe it is a bad time to make such a
        purchase.
    

According to Senior Vice-President Doug Anderson "While consumer confidence remains relatively high in Canada compared to the US and to the same period last year, it appears to have stalled. Canadians are clearly optimistic about the long term but recent events such as the downturn in the stock market, the effect of the rising dollar on our manufacturing exports and the banking crisis overseas may have taken a toll on Canadians optimism towards their personal wealth."

"Maintaining a longer term focus is important, particularly when short-term volatility increases," said Jack Courtney, Assistant Vice-President, Advanced Financial Planning at Investors Group. "Canadians are well advised to keep their long range financial plans in perspective and avoid surrendering to the emotions of the moment."

These data were gathered through teleVox, the company's national telephone omnibus survey for two weeks from May 20 and May 30 2010 for just over 2,000 completes. A sample of the same size has a margin of error of 2.2%, 19 times out of 20.

For further information: Doug Anderson, Senior Vice-President, [email protected], harrisdecima.com; Ron Arnst, Director, Media Relations, Investors Group, [email protected]