Canadian economists predict consumers will be ‘cautious’ spending over holidays [Video]

With Black Friday sales already in play and with Christmas a month away, the holiday shopping season is underway as Statistics Canada revealed last week the country’s inflation rate climbed back up to two per cent in October.

But even though the two-per-cent increase is in line with Bank of Canada targets, one Alberta-based economist says Canadians are “going to be very cautious,” because while inflation has slowed down, prices haven’t gone down.

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“We do see them spending a little bit more than last year, but keep in mind that last year was a very difficult period with very high interest rates, before the Bank of Canada started lowering its interest rates and we had higher inflation, so it’s not really a fair comparison to last year,” Mark Parson, the chief economist for ATB, told …