Majority of Canadians anxious, worried about rising interest rates

A majority of Canadians are personally feeling the effects of rising interest rates over the last few months, according to a new poll.

However, when given a choice, almost 70 per cent of those polled would rather live with higher interest rates than with higher inflation.

The Maru Public Opinion survey found that 39 per cent are feeling real anxiety because of money pressures, while 18 per cent say they are “worried sick” about where rising interest rates could lead to financially for either themselves or their family.

The groups who were more likely to be “worried sick” were primarily those who were making less than $50,000 per year and who were both younger and middle-aged Canadians between the ages of 18 to 54.

Just over 40 per cent said the rising rates were not a problem for either themselves or their family.

The Bank of Canada hiked interest rates by 75 basis points to 3.25 per cent back in September, its fifth consecutive hike this year.

The central bank says they are raising interest rates in an effort to cool Canada’s inflation which was 7.6 per cent in July, much higher than the Bank of Canada’s two per cent target.

The inflation rate has cooled slowly, dropping to 7 per cent in August; however, grocery prices increased by over 10 per cent year-over-year.

This poll was conducted on Oct. 7-9 using 1,521 randomly selected Canadian adults who are Maru Voice Canada online panellists and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 per cent, 19 times out of 20.