Inflation tops list of Canadians’ financial concerns: poll

As Canadians prepare for a new year, they’re worried about inflation and planning to repay debt, based on a CIBC poll released on Wednesday.

Nearly two-thirds (65%) of respondents to the poll, which was conducted from Dec. 12 to Dec. 19, said inflation topped their list of financial concerns. Repaying debt, cited by 18% of respondents, was the number one goal for 2023.

One in four said they took on more debt in the last 12 months, with nearly half of respondents (47%) citing the increased cost of living as a reason for the debt.

Based on StatsCan data, grocery and housing costs are stubbornly high, with food prices and mortgage interest costs rising 11.4% and 14.5%, respectively, in November on an annual basis.

More than half of the CIBC poll respondents (55%) said they need to get a better handle on their financial situations in the coming year.

“The current economic environment has, understandably, prompted Canadians to re-assess their financial priorities for 2023,” said Carissa Lucreziano, vice-president with CIBC Financial and Investment Advice, in a release.

Re-assessing those priorities may prove challenging. More than two-thirds (68%) of respondents said economic uncertainty made planning difficult. And 80% said they didn’t have goal-planning discussions with their financial advisors last year. (The proportion of respondents who had advisors wasn’t specified.)

Positively, however, 62% felt financially prepared for the unexpected, and 59% said their financial situations were secure enough to withstand a recession.

The CIBC poll, conducted by Maru/Blue, was based on 1,523 Canadians who were Maru Voice Canada online panellists. Online surveys can’t be assigned a margin of error because they don’t randomly sample the population.

Staff

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