As central bankers attempt to slow down the economy with higher interest rates, we watch consumer spending habits to see if tighter money is forcing us to change our ways.
One of the metrics we track in this effort is discretionary spending, places where we can easily cut back. Among those outlets are restaurants and bars.
So, are we cutting back? Maybe, maybe not.
Sales for this arm of the hospitality sector are up from a year ago. They rose 14 per cent on a year-over-year basis in Saskatchewan and part of that can be attributed to higher prices but it might also be increased patronage. Prices account for about half of the increase, according to StatsCan. So, the other half is likely from more activity.
But things appear to be slowing down. When you look at a month-over-month tracker, sales in March were down a couple percentage points from February. So, maybe we are finally starting to feel the bite of higher interest rates, particularly in bars which showed the sharpest decline in March – falling about nine per cent compared to full-service restaurant sales which were unchanged.
