This holiday season, Canadians are more cautious in their spending despite a tax relief on a multitude of articles, new surveys.
Nearly 40 percent of Canadians reported in a Ipsos survey conducted exclusively for Global News and announced Tuesday that they plan to limit their gift purchases this holiday season. This represents an increase of 10 points compared to when a similar survey was conducted last year.
Four in ten people also plan to spend the same amount as last year – down nine points from October 2023 – while 11% said they would increase their spending on gifts this time around, the poll found Ipsos.
“Right now, it seems like people are approaching the holidays with a lot of caution, and to the extent that they’re overstepping the bounds of caution, it’s not to spend more, it’s to spend less,” Darrell Bricker said. , global CEO of public affairs at Ipsos.
Financial pressures are weighing on the holiday spending budgets of the majority of Canadians, with 76 per cent saying inflation and interest rates have had a “significant impact.”
Overall inflation has slowed in recent months, hitting the Bank of Canada. two percent target in October, and the interest rate fell to 3.25 percent after five consecutive cuts. However, many Canadians continue to feel tight in their wallets.
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To help ease cost-of-living pressure on Canadians, the federal government has issued a two-month “tax holiday.” on several points which came into force on Saturday. Bricker said even the tax break doesn’t appear to have had the “desired effect” Ottawa was looking for.
“(Canadians) are budgeting more than before, they are more conscious of the money they spend and they do not think that even a tax holiday can change the situation,” he said.
Young Canadians, aged 35 to 54, are those who are reducing their vacation spending the most, according to the Ipsos survey.
“What young Canadians are telling us is that they are not making the progress they thought they should be making in their lives and that they are not even able to participate in holiday traditions as much as they would like, which which is… somewhat depressing. hearing that this time of year,” Bricker said.
What are Canadians concerned about this holiday season?
Nearly 60 per cent of Canadians surveyed by Ipsos said they couldn’t save more money on gifts during the holiday season because they had to spend more on essentials.
Nearly half (47 percent) said they budget their finances more carefully and 30 percent said they make less money now than in previous years.
Credit card debt is also a major concern for many Canadians during the holiday season, with 43 percent worried they won’t be able to pay off their credit card debt and more than a third (36 percent) worrying to need a new credit card. , a line of credit or a loan to help you make your holiday purchases.
The Ipsos survey showed that 45 percent of respondents worry they won’t be able to afford Christmas gifts for family or loved ones, and 41 percent fear “being overwhelmed by spending holidays.”
While food prices remain high and expecting this to be the case this holiday season, four in ten Canadians (39 per cent) are worried about not being able to put food on their table, according to a survey.
“The ironic thing about all of this is that the government has really invested a lot of money, not only financially but reputationally, into people to get help, but they don’t feel it. just not,” Bricker said.
These are some of the conclusions of an Ipsos survey carried out between December 6 and 10, 2024 on behalf of Global News. For this survey, a sample of 1,001 Canadians aged 18 and over was surveyed online. Quotas and weighting were used to ensure that the composition of the sample reflected that of the Canadian population according to census parameters. The accuracy of Ipsos online surveys is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the poll is accurate to within ±3.8 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, if all Canadians aged 18 and over had been surveyed. The credibility interval will be wider among subsets of the population. All sample surveys and polls may be subject to other sources of error, including, but not limited to, coverage error and measurement error.
© 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.