Consumer Sentiment Improves Slightly in Canada After Collapse

(Bloomberg) -- The plunge in Canadian consumer confidence over the past couple of months seems to have come to a halt for now, with sentiment levels stabilizing for a third straight week.

The Bloomberg Nanos Canadian Confidence Index ticked up slightly last week, its first gain since early February. The gauge remains near all-time lows after plummeting as millions of Canadians lost their jobs due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The results suggest income support programs have helped put a floor under consumer confidence amid economy-wide shutdowns. As of April 28, Canada's government had paid C$25.6 billion ($18.2 billion) to 7.3 million workers under its main emergency benefit program.

The government also began taking in applications for its wage subsidy program last week -- which will be the most expensive component of its fiscal package.

“After a wholesale collapse in consumer confidence in Canadian consumer confidence in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, the negative trajectory may be flattening in the short term,” Nik Nanos, chief data scientist at Nanos Research, said in a statement.

Every week, Nanos Research surveys 250 Canadians for their views on personal finances, job security and their outlook for the economy and real estate prices. Bloomberg publishes four-week rolling averages of the 1,000 telephone responses.

The composite gauge rose to 37.7 last week, from 37.1 a week earlier. It's still about 20 points below its average over the past year.

There was little change in the results for most of the questions:

The share of Canadians who say their personal finances have worsened over the past year fell to 41.2% from 42.3%, which was a record high
The number of Canadians who believe the nation's economy will weaken over the next six months recorded its second weekly decline -- to 76.1% from 80.2% two weeks ago
Concern about losing a job dropped slightly to 23.8% from 24.5%
Some 47% of respondents expect home prices to fall, up from 46%