Consumer Pulse Q3 2022

Inflation concerns continued as households shifted their behaviours and reduced spending to potentially cope with rising costs. An increasing proportion of households indicated their finances were worse than planned — likely due to rising costs.

To combat inflation, the Bank of Canada continued to raise interest rates. This impacted consumer demand for credit. In fact, 80% of consumers said they’re not planning to apply for new or refinance existing credit in the next year. This was more pronounced among older generations. Furthermore, 47% of all consumers said rising interest rates had a high or moderate impact on whether or not they’re going to apply for credit in the next year.

Canadians still had reservations around data and information sharing. While a relatively low percentage of consumers seemed to be aware of fraud or breaches affecting them, they were still concerned about sharing personal data; the main worry being identity theft.