Year-over-year change in monthly consumer spending in Canada 2014-2019

Consumer spending in Canada in June 2019 was almost two percent higher than it was in June of the previous year.

Holiday season shopping in Canada

During the holidays, a considerable amount of money is spent on gifts in Canada. On average, Canadian consumers spent 130 Canadian dollars on gifts of experience in 2018, making the gift category that people spent the most money on for that period. The Canadian consumer generally also spent a reasonably large amount on gift cards, toys, and entertainment.

Overspending during the holiday season

Consumers also commonly overspend over the course of the holiday season: in Canada specifically, one in five consumers spent between one and one hundred Canadian dollars more than they were originally expecting to in 2019. A quarter of the country’s shoppers were not sure if they had overspent that year. On average, about 35 percent of Canadians overspent during the holidays of 2019. Specifically, consumers in Ontario and British Columbia overspent the most.