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Ottawa • The post-election honeymoon for Canada's economy is fading, with consumer confidence falling for a second week to the lowest since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal Party won an unexpected majority last month, weekly telephone polling shows.
The Bloomberg Nanos Consumer Confidence Index dropped to 56.8, from 57.7 a week earlier, pulled down by falling expectations for personal finances and the economy.
The share of those expecting the economy to deteriorate over the next six months jumped to 28.3 percent, or 7 percentage points higher than two weeks earlier.
Canadians will get a sense of the outlook tomorrow, when the nation's statistics agency publishes gross domestic product data for the third quarter.
Consumer expectations surged after the Oct. 19 election, which Trudeau won partly on a pledge to run budget deficits and kick-start growth that contracted in the first two quarters this year.
Job security is also diminishing, with the share of those who say their job is at least somewhat secure falling to 67.9 percent, below the 12-month average of 68.8 percent. Statistics Canada is due to report labor force data on Dec. 4.
"Although sentiment on job security and the future strength of the Canadian economy slid, it was partially offset by more positive sentiment on the future value of residential real estate," Nanos Research Group Chairman Nik Nanos said.
Those expecting real estate values to rise in their neighborhood over the next six months increased, reaching 36.4 percent from 34 percent a week earlier.
The share who expect a decline also increased, to 15.2 percent from 13.3 percent.
The economic mood index fell most sharply in the prairies, where it dropped to 48.1 from 51.6 a week earlier. Confidence fell in Quebec and Ontario while rising in British Columbia and the Atlantic provinces.
Nanos Research produces the weekly confidence index from questions on personal finances, job security, the outlook for the economy and real estate prices.
The survey is based on phone interviews with 1,000 people and uses a four-week rolling average of 250 respondents. The results are considered accurate to within 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.