We don’t have any definitive figures yet – and probably won’t for a month or two – but the early signs suggest Justin Trudeau’s GST holiday is turning into a bust.
It’s going to be a while before we get the official retail spending figures for December – likely sometime in the back half of February – but anecdotal reports from retailers suggest this year’s season was not as a busy as some others. And that is after Ottawa tossed in the GST holiday on selected items.
This is in line with some more reliable information which comes from the banking sector. They track activity on their clients’ credit and debit cards to see whether spending is on the rise or falling. Now, the latest we have from them is November but it shows that Black Friday volume was soft this year. This may have been the precursor to Christmas spending which is prime-time for those in the retail sector.
Couple this data with indicators showing consumer confidence is falling and you have a recipe for unhappiness, a mood that often shows up at the ballot box.
