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North Shore residents see inflation as biggest financial worry

Between the double whammy of skyrocketing inflation and creeping interest rate hikes, North Shore residents are much more worried about inflation, a recent poll reveals.
Jane Seyd
Jane Seyd
Money
Rising prices and increased interest rates could both be set to cause financial pain in the coming months.Mike Wakefield, North Shore News files

Between the double whammy of skyrocketing inflation and creeping interest rate hikes, North Shore residents are much more worried about inflation, a recent poll reveals.

Inflation rates for consumer goods in April were 6.7 per cent in B.C. compared with the same month a year ago, according to Statistics Canada, up in 6 per cent in March. The costs of gas and food made up some of the biggest increases, while rent also jumped. And economists are predicting things are only going to get worse.

In an effort to tamp down inflation, the Bank of Canada has been hiking interest rates. Some economists have compared today's financial situation to that of the 1970s, when out-of-control inflation prompted interest rate hikes into the double digits.

That is also a worry to many people, as consumers today are carrying record debt loads, meaning even small interest rate hikes could result in financial pain.

Of the two, however, inflation remains the biggest worry for North Shore readers, with almost 43 per cent of local residents who responded to a recent poll saying they aren't concerned about interest rates if higher rates keep a rein on inflation and the housing market. A slightly smaller number, 37 per cent, said they are somewhat concerned about rising interest rates, although they could handle a small increase. Just under 20 per cent of those polls said their debt loads had them significantly concerned about rising interest rates.

North Shore News polled 2,306 North Shore News readers and asked the question: How concerned are you about rising interest rates?

The poll ran from April 20, 2022 to May 18, 2022. Of the 2,306 votes, we can determine that 878 are from within the community. The full results are as follows:

Very concerned. My household carries a lot of debt and meeting payments will be a lot harder with higher rates. 19.70% local, 24.46% total    
Somewhat concerned. I can handle a small increase in rates – but not a lot – if it means keeping inflation in check. 37.36% local, 32.57% total    
Not at all concerned. Higher interest rates are what we need to keep a rein on inflation and moderate the crazy housing market. 42.94% local, 42.97% total    
  Local   Total

Results are based on an online study of adult North Shore News readers who are located in North Shore. The margin of error – which measures sample variability – is +/- 2.03%, 19 times out of 20.

North Shore News uses a variety of techniques to capture data, detect and prevent fraudulent votes, detect and prevent robots, and filter out non-local and duplicate votes.

 

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