Canadians spending 30% more than pre-COVID-19 levels despite inflation: report

The latest Consumer Spending Tracker from the Royal Bank of Canada found pent-up demand for goods and services are continuing to drive up household spending.

Canadians are spending 30 per cent more than they were before the COVID-19 pandemic began over two years ago, a new report says, despite rising costs driven by inflation.

The latest Consumer Spending Tracker from the Royal Bank of Canada found pent-up demand for goods and services are continuing to drive up household spending, as more Canadians take advantage of eased public health restrictions.

“It’s really about normalization,” said RBC economist Rannella Billy-Ochieng.

“As far as the economy reopens, we are seeing people capitalize on these new opportunities to spend, to go out and to travel.”

The tracker, which measures aggregate spending across economic sectors, found households are now spending 35.63 per cent more per week than 2019 — before the economic downfall sparked by the pandemic — and 30.72 per cent more per month.

Both numbers are the highest since spending first surpassed pre-COVID-19 levels in January 2021, and are double the rate measured this past January.

The report comes shortly after Statistics Canada found the annual rate of inflation hit 6.7 per cent in March, the fastest year-over-year increase in the consumer price index in over 31 years.

Grocery store prices rose 8.7 per cent year-over-year, the fastest annual rate since March 2009, aided by the largest annual increase in dairy and egg prices since February 1983.