B.C.’s consumer confidence rose 1.1 points in August on the Conference Board of Canada’s Index of Consumer Confidence – the only province not to post a decline.
However, conference board economist Todd Crawford noted that B.C. is not bucking this year’s trend of declining consumer confidence across the country.
“B.C.’s index is down considerably from where it was at the start of the year – it was 102.2 in January and now it’s 86.1,” he said. “So the trend has been down over the course of the year.”
Crawford said a factor driving the rise in B.C.’s consumer confidence this month was respondents indicating that they feel better about their finances now than they did six months ago.
But that confidence gain was tempered by respondents expecting their financial situation to worsen in the next six months.
“So even though people in B.C. are feeling better than they were six months ago, they expect things to get worse over the coming six months.”
Another factor pulling consumer confidence down in B.C., he said, is a pessimistic view of job creation in the next six months. Crawford said just 11.1% of respondents expect more jobs in their communities in the next six months, relative to about 20% at the beginning of the year.
“That does fit again with ongoing difficulties in equity markets – investor and consumer confidence are much weaker,” he said. “And, in fact, job creation in B.C. hasn’t been terrific this year, so it does seem that people are taking notice.”
Nationally, the index fell 6.6 points to 74.7 in August. This fourth consecutive monthly drop brought the index to the lowest level since July 2009.
The index is benchmarked with 2002 confidence levels set at 100 points on the scale.
Jenny Wagler
Twitter: JennyWagler_BIV