Consensus is building among Canadian business leaders that inflation will average above three per cent over the next two years, according to a new survey from the Bank of Canada.
The survey, which polled business leaders in the final quarter of 2021, found two-thirds (67 per cent) of respondents anticipated that inflation will stay above three per cent over the next two years. In a similar poll from the previous quarter, fewer than half (45 per cent) of respondents predicted inflation would average above three per cent over the following two years.
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The findings indicated that the business community is increasingly skeptical of inflation predictions made by Canada’s central bank. According to the Bank of Canada’s own forecast, inflation will fall back between two and three per cent in 2022. Fewer than a third (30 per cent) of the respondents predicted that inflation will be between two and three per cent in 2022 and 2023, down from 42 per cent in the previous quarter’s survey.
Meanwhile, in a survey of Canadian consumers’ opinions on the economy during the fourth quarter of 2021, the average respondent predicted inflation would hit about 4.12 per cent in 2022 and 2023. In a similar survey conducted during the third quarter of 2021, the average two-year inflation prediction was just 3.06 per cent.
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