Consumer confidence holds steady

Canadian consumer confidence remains steady in December, according to the latest data from TNS. Their Canadian Consumer Confidence Index lost only 0.3 points, moving from 98.9 in November to 98.6 – not a statistically significant change.

The Present Situation Index, which measures how people feel about the economy right now, also remained virtually unchanged, rising only 0.1%.

Read: Canadian consumer confidence rises

The Expectations Index, which measures peoples’ outlook for the economy six months from now, saw a slight drop of 0.6 points, moving from 102.2 to 101.6. This is still more than 2 points higher than October’s measure, and it is still showing a rising trend which began in early summer.

Read: U.S. consumer confidence rises dramatically

The Buy Index, which measures the extent to which Canadians feel now is a good time to purchase a “big ticket item” such as a car or a major household appliance, showed another slight, but expected, drop as Canadians typically will be putting aside car and major appliance purchases in favour of holiday spending. The Buy Index dropped 0.7 points, from 92.8 to 92.1 – typical for the months of November and December.

On average, Canadians say they intend to spend roughly $960 (+/- $90.00) on holiday items, which is actually not different from the two years prior when taking the margin of error into account.

Read: 7 steps to smarter holiday spending

Staff

The staff of Advisor.ca have been covering news for financial advisors since 1998.