Spending Power of Canadian Households Slightly Down in January

Walmart Canada Income Tracker shows $15 drop

MISSISSAUGA, ON, Feb. 27, 2012 /CNW/ - Today Walmart Canada released the Walmart Canada Income Tracker for the month of January, which shows that the average Canadian household had $15 less per month in spending power in January 2012, compared to January, 2011. This represents a small decline in spending power of 0.5%.

The Walmart Canada Income Tracker compares average household income with the key financial obligations facing Canadian households each month, including taxes, shelter, transportation, cost of utilities, and food. Spending power is the money available after these obligations are met to save or to spend on discretionary items (e.g., toys, clothing, furniture) or experiences, (e.g., movies, sports events, restaurant meals).

In January, on average Canadian household income rose by 2.5 per cent. Household financial obligations which negatively impacted spending power included transportation costs, which rose 7.3 per cent in the month compared to a year earlier, utilities which rose by 2.8 per cent, and financing and shelter costs, which both rose by 2.6 per cent.

The Walmart Canada Income Tracker reports monthly on Canadian household spending power.

About Walmart Canada
Walmart Canada operates a growing chain of 333 stores, employs over 85,000 Canadians and serves more than one million customers each day. The company is recognized by Waterstone Human Capital as having one of Canada's top 10 corporate cultures. Since 1994, Walmart has raised and donated more than $150 million to Canadian charities and not-for-profit organizations. Additional information about Walmart Canada can be found by visiting www.walmart.ca.

The Walmart Income Tracker has been developed to track spending power of Canadian households using publicly available income, cost of living and consumer price index statistics compiled nationally by Statistics Canada on a monthly or quarterly basis

The Walmart Income Tracker is developed by Fusion Retail Analytics and leverages Statistics Canada's national income and expenditure accounts (released quarterly), personal expenditure on goods and services (released quarterly), labour income (released monthly), labour force estimates (released monthly) and the consumer price index (released monthly) as well as additional proprietary Fusion Retail Analytics data sources. The Walmart Spending Power Tracker is updated monthly and updated each quarter with the most recent Statistics Canada revisions.

please contact Susan Schutta, Walmart Canada, at 905-821-2111, x78012