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Canadian Facts - Consumer confidence flat: Survey


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Today’s Concerns Outweigh Tomorrow’s Hopes

TORONTO – The latest results from TNS Canadian Facts’ Consumer Confidence Index suggest that Canadians are maintaining a helter-skelter attitude when it comes to the Canadian economy. They remain concerned about the current economic situation but are still positive about the future. Overall, the index edged downward to 96.7 from last month’s 97.2. It remains slightly higher than November’s 95.5 result.

“The confidence numbers are stagnant – essentially flatlining. True, hopeful signs for the future remain, but for the here-and-now, things look simply blah,” said Dr. Michael Antecol, vice-president of TNS Canadian Facts and director of the marketing research firm’s monthly tracking study.

On the negative side, the Present Situation Index, which captures evaluations of the overall state of the current economic and employment situations, dropped 1.3 points to 82.7 – edging even farther away from its historical high of 123.0. Likewise the Buy Index, which gauges the degree to which people think the current period is a good time to make major purchases, returned to its downward trend after last month’s rise. It fell to 100.4 from 102.6 in December, perhaps reflecting some level of post-holiday blues.

There was a ray of sunshine in the Expectations Index, which measures consumers’ estimation of the economy, household income and employment in the next six months. It continued its upward movement and set a new high by rising to 111.8 from last month’s 109.4.



“Canadians remain pessimistic about the economy and their own place in it. With holiday bills coming in, they’re down on their current situations, and less likely to make those major purchases. Still, there is unabashed hope for the future. But that future is a ways off – it will be a long and winding road until we can say it’s partly sunny rather than partly cloudy,” added Dr. Antecol.

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 January 11 and 14, 2010. For a survey sample this size, the margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

TNS Canadian Facts (www.tns-cf.com) is one of Canada’s most prestigious full-service marketing, opinion and social research organizations.

About TNS

TNS, who recently merged with Research International, is the world’s largest custom research agency delivering actionable insights and research-based business advice to its clients so they can make more effective business decisions. TNS offers comprehensive industry knowledge within the Consumer, Technology, Finance, Automotive and Political & Social sectors, supported by a unique product offering that stretches across the entire range of marketing and business issues, specializing in product development & innovation, brand & communication, stakeholder management, retail & shopper, and qualitative research. Delivering best-in-class service across more than 70 countries, TNS is part of the Kantar Group. Please visit www.tnsglobal.com for more information.

About Kantar

Kantar is one of the world’s largest insight, information and consultancy networks. 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 26,500 employees work across 95 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.



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