A funny thing happened on the way to the endemic. Canadians picked up a new habit — saving money.
The lockdowns and general uncertainty that resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic declaration sparked economic fears in people so they began accumulating piles of money. Part of it was the fact that they had nowhere to spend it with restaurants and entertainment venues closed and vacation travel almost eliminated. But, they were also scared, so they hoarded cash.
When the pandemic was over and the economy opened up again, the general consensus was that people would return to their old spending ways after a bit of a celebration. It turns out we did celebrate and splurge but we didn’t exactly return to the old ways.
A new report from RBC Royal Bank shows Canadians have retained the saving habit. This is more prevalent among higher income earners who have the capacity to set aside money even in the face of inflation and higher interest rates but, it would appear, at least some of us learned some lessons about frugality during the lockdown.
