Index of Consumer Spending

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Consumer Spending Growth Weakens as the Unemployment Rate Rises

Updated: September 21, 2022

Consumer spending growth has been trending downward in recent months and continued throughout August.

After reaching 99.9 points in the final week of July, the Index of Consumer Spending (ICS) fell for three straight weeks to a new low record during the week of August 14.

1.9 points to 96.4

Previous Releases

Inflationary Pressures Ease as Consumer Spending Growth Slows

The index has remained below the benchmark of 100.0 points for six consecutive weeks. This finding means that consumer spending has cooled and has yet to recover. Canadians have adjusted their spending habits to deal with the inflationary pressures over the last couple of months. High energy and fuel prices have contributed to a change in consumer behaviour as Canadians allocate a larger share of their weekly budgets to gasoline.

Online experience | 8-min read
August 26, 2022

Canadians Adjust Spending Habits to Cope with Persistent Inflation

Inflation reached 8.1 per cent year-over-year in June, and many Canadians have struggled to keep up with the rise in prices. According to our Index of Consumer Confidence (ICC), Canadians felt less optimistic about current and future finances in June due to persistent inflation. This decline in confidence caused Canadians to adjust their spending habits, which is why consumer spending growth slowed in June.

Online experience | 8-min read
August 3, 2022

About the ICS

The Index of Consumer Spending is The Conference Board of Canada’s latest index and it is powered by exclusive consumer transaction data provided by Moneris Data Services. Moneris is Canada’s number one payment processor with over 3.5 billion transactions spanning more than 325,000 merchant locations. Our index tracks weekly year-on-year changes in consumer spending, enabling us to gauge economic activity levels across the country and provide insights into how the Canadian economy is performing coast to coast.

Updates on this index will be released monthly.

Author

David Ristovski

Economist
ristovski@conferenceboard.ca

David Ristovski joined the Conference Board in April of 2022. As a member of the economic forecasting team, he works on our economic forecasts and is responsible for providing monthly updates on our index of consumer spending.

David holds a master’s degree in economics from the University of Western Ontario and a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and statistics from the University of Windsor. His research interests include macroeconomics, banking, and monetary policy.

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