TORONTO – A new poll suggests policy-makers should have little fear of Canadians taking on more debt if the Bank of Canada moves to lower interest rates on Wednesday.
The poll, issued by the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, found that 93 per cent of respondents said they were unlikely to increase their borrowing if rates drop.
That compared with only seven per cent who said they would consider adding more debt if rates come down further.
Meanwhile, one-third of those polled said they would use a rate cut as an opportunity to accelerate debt repayment.
There is widespread speculation the Bank of Canada might reduce its trend-setting policy rate in an attempt to stimulate the economy, which many believe has slipped into a technical recession – defined as two consecutive quarters of negative growth.
The online survey of 1,508 people was conducted for CIBC July 6-7 by Angus Reid. The polling industry’s professional body, the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association, says online surveys cannot be assigned a margin of error because they do not randomly sample the population.
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