With gas prices rising and grocery bills increasing it doesn’t exactly feel like the inflation rate is as low as it is.
Scotia Bank Chief Economist Dr Warren Jestin explains this is because it’s actually consumer electronics, like flat screen tv’s, that are pushing our national inflation rates down.
While visiting the Orillia Lakehead University Dr Jestin told Bayshore Broadcasting that he doesn’t think we will see national inflation rates climb much any time soon, but warns to stay tuned as over the next year or so we still have a lot of access labour and our unemployements rates remains pretty high.
Jestin says dealing with consumer debt these days can be a difficult issue, but his biggest piece of advice is not to consider these current interest rates as normal, they’re not.
He says that over the next 2-3 years consumers we will find interest rates go up, which is good news for people with money in the bank, but bad news for people who have mortgages.
Jestin warns people who are borrowing and stretching themselves to their limit is a losing strategy, instead he says we should think more about investing and less about consumer spending.
The most important advice Jestin has is this, whatever you’re doing in whatever job you’re in constant improvement on skills and performance is the surest way to do better.
