A new survey has unveiled that about half of the Canadians have admitted to finding it difficult or very difficult to feed their families due to rising inflation that has increased grocery bills. The Angus Reid Institute conducted the survey, and 1,992 Canadian adult members of the Angus Reid Forum participated in it. They talked about their household finances and highlighted what they believe the Bank of Canada should do in the present situation.
As the inflation
is now at a 31-year high, 49% of respondents said they found it difficult
or very difficult to feed their families. This is not surprising given that food
prices increased 8.7% year-over-year in March. The last time this survey was
conducted was in April 2019. At that time, only 36% of respondents believed
that they found it difficult or very difficult to feed their families.
Pessimistic Attitude
According to the survey results, Canadians
have a pessimistic outlook when it comes to their finances. About 36% of
respondents said they were in worse financial shape than a year back. Only 24%
said that their finances improved in the last 12 months. About 39% said their
finances were the same.
In the survey, about 28% of respondents
mentioned that they believe their financial situation would be worse a year
from now, while 24% believed it would improve. 38% said that it would be the
same. About 63% of respondents said they expected to be worse off financially a
year from now. Just 6% expected their situation to improve.
Uncertainty is There
Angus Reid Institute President Shachi Kurl
said, "At this stage, you know, jobs are abundant. What the challenge is,
of course, is people's ability to access disposable income in a way that they
have relative to years past. So you're feeling squeezed because your grocery
bill is now more, or you are blanching at the cost of a liter of gas, it is all
of those things layered on top of the potential either for rising mortgage
rates down the road or higher credit card debt rates down the road. It all
represents a period of real uncertainty."
What Should the Bank of Canada Do?
There was little consensus on what Bank of
Canada should do to bring the inflation down in the survey. About 45% of respondents
agreed that they would prefer if the bank kept the overnight lending rate at 1%.
About 27% said they would prefer it if the bank kept increasing rates to fight
inflation, and 13% said they want to see the rates lowered to protect housing
and investment markets. Approximately 15% of respondents were unsure about what
the bank should do.
Kurl said, "Admittedly, the Bank of
Canada does not make decisions based on public opinion. But we're seeing about
half of Canadians saying, look, if it were up to them, they would have the Bank
of Canada stand pat, maintain the status quo for now, rather than raise
interest rates further. If you are already somebody who's feeling squeezed by
the grocery bill, by the gas bill, by the cost of everyday living, you are
perhaps looking out at a mortgage that's coming due in the next year, in the
next two years, and your eyes are getting wider and wider, saying what is that
going to cost me."
Sources:
https://www.cp24.com/news/nearly-half-of-canadians-are-finding-it-difficult-to-feed-their-families-amid-spiraling-inflation-survey-1.5916096
https://cantabriatradicional.com/almost-half-of-canadians-report-finding-it-difficult-to-feed-their-families-amid-spiraling-inflation-a-survey/
https://headtopics.com/ca/nearly-half-of-canadians-are-finding-it-difficult-to-feed-their-families-amid-spiraling-inflation-s-26708190