According to a survey by the Economic Club of Canada, there is an increasing number of Canadians who are worried about the economy and how they will be affected by what many consider as mild recession.
The survey found out that only 25% of the respondents asked last December are optimistic about the economy this new year, a decline from 2011’s 36% and 2010’s 54%.
This growing worry comes in the heels of the recent predictions by most economists that Canadian growth this year will be less than 2% with minimal growth in jobs. These pessimistic predictions will certainly do little for the 1.5 million unemployed Canadians.
The survey also found out that about 70% of respondents believe that the country is already in a mild recession though technically, a recession occurs only when there have been two successive quarters of economic shrinkage.
According to Michael Marzolini, chairman of Pollara Strategic Insights, which conducted the survey on behalf of the Economic Club, “This is the most pessimism we’ve seen, except for briefly in 2008, since 1996. Canadians not only believe we’re now in a recession, but expectations for the length of the recession are actually longer than they were in any year since 2008.”
Most of the survey’s respondents were also worried about how the state of the economy will affect their personal finances with about 47% saying they believe income will fall below the cost of living.
The survey results were collected online from 2,878 Canadians in December 2011 by Pollara research firm.
A similar survey was also conducted by the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. Results from this survey concluded that Canadians are feeling slightly less optimistic about their financial situations this 2012 than they were a year ago.
Reference:
- “Canadians increasingly worried about economy”, The Canadian Press, January 5, 2012
- “Canadians’ confidence in finances wanes”, Financial Post Staff, January 3, 2012
