Consumer confidence held steady in Canada over 2011's first quarter, according to a poll released Tuesday, though there are concerns about rising prices for such things as food and fuel.
Royal Bank of Canada's latest quarterly consumer outlook index had a score of 96, up from 93 in the report released in January.
The poll also showed 45% of those surveyed said they are seeing an impact on their budgets from rising food and gasoline prices.
Looking at what emerged as high financial priorities for the year, paying down debt was cited most often, by 39% of survey-takers. Other strong priorities included spending less (cited by 30%), saving or investing (23%) and 25% said they were focusing on all these things.
The survey found that 42% expect overall economic conditions to improve in the coming year, down one point from the previous quarter's poll. As well, 39% thought their own financial situations would improve, up one point from last time. And 22% expressed concern about losing their jobs, which was two points higher than the previous poll.
The data was based on an online survey conducted by Ipsos Reid between March 11 and 25 of 3,520 Canadians. While this survey sample was weighted to reflect the country's demographics, RBC said an unweighted sample this size would have been representative of the population within 1.65 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
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