For the 4th quarter of 2008, the Bank of Canada reported exceptionally high household debt-to-income ratio, personal bankruptcy data, and rates of arrears in respect of credit card and mortgage payments. The CEOs and business leaders on the COMPAS business panel anticipate that the corresponding figures for the first half of 2009 will be the same or worse, especially in respect of credit card and mortgage payment arrears. That is the bad news.

The good news is that panelists expect the real estate market to be somewhat stable, following upon strong sales figures for May 2009, as reported by the Canadian Real Estate Association.

These are the key findings from this past week’s Internet survey of CEOs and business leaders on the COMPAS panel. The weekly business survey is undertaken for Canadian Business magazine under sponsorship of BDO Dunwoody LLP.

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