Friday our friends a Stats Canada published the CPI numbers for June 2012, and rates are up a bit more than in May, but still not horrendous.
Surprisingly gasoline was not a direct contributor this time, but electricity did:
Consumer prices rose 1.5% in the 12 months to June, following a 1.2% gain in May. The increase in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) was led by higher prices for the purchase of passenger vehicles and, to a lesser extent, for electricity.
It is interesting that electricity, allegedly the fuel of the future is now having the same issues that gasoline is having?
The cost of electricity rose 5.9% year over year in June, mostly as a result of increases in Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia.
Higher electricity charges? Wonder what happens when the next generation of plug-in electric cars arrive, will folks want to plug them in? There needs to be some kind threshold which electricity cannot cross for electric cars to be a viable option.
The Energy Index as a whole is a bit of a roller coaster as you can see:
If you look at the seasonally adjusted value, CPI is actually dropping (it dropped 0.3% last month and 0.2% this month), but that really means nothing in my mind, CPI is raw numbers, let’s not wallow about with adjustments!
Bank of Canada Index
The Bank of Canada’s version of the data is again, interesting:
The Bank of Canada’s core index rose 2.0% in the 12 months to June, following a 1.8% gain in May. Price increases for the purchase of passenger vehicles and electricity were main contributors to the year-over-year increase in the core index.
On a monthly basis, the seasonally adjusted core index rose 0.1% in June, after declining 0.1% in May.
So this is actually getting closer to when the Bank might act?
The Big Table
What about all of the data from Stats Canada, you might ask?
Consumer Price Index and major components, Canada – Not seasonally adjusted
| Relative import1 | June 2011 | May 2012 | June 2012 | May to June 2012 | June 2011 to June 2012 |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| % | (2002=100) | % change | ||||
| All-items Consumer Price Index (CPI) | 100.002 | 119.8 | 122.1 | 121.6 | -0.4 | 1.5 |
| Food | 15.99 | 128.3 | 130.9 | 130.9 | 0.0 | 2.0 |
| Shelter | 27.49 | 125.4 | 126.7 | 127.0 | 0.2 | 1.3 |
| Household operations, furnishings and equipment | 11.55 | 110.7 | 112.8 | 113.1 | 0.3 | 2.2 |
| Clothing and footwear | 5.31 | 90.4 | 93.4 | 90.5 | -3.1 | 0.1 |
| Transportation | 20.60 | 125.5 | 129.9 | 127.6 | -1.8 | 1.7 |
| Health and personal care | 4.95 | 116.9 | 118.8 | 118.9 | 0.1 | 1.7 |
| Recreation, education and reading | 11.20 | 106.0 | 106.7 | 106.7 | 0.0 | 0.7 |
| Alcoholic beverages and tobacco products | 2.91 | 135.6 | 137.7 | 137.5 | -0.1 | 1.4 |
| Special aggregates | ||||||
| Core CPI3 | 82.15 | 117.1 | 119.9 | 119.4 | -0.4 | 2.0 |
| All-items CPI excluding energy | 89.92 | 116.8 | 119.3 | 118.8 | -0.4 | 1.7 |
| Energy4 | 10.08 | 157.0 | 157.7 | 155.7 | -1.3 | -0.8 |
| Gasoline | 5.80 | 183.5 | 186.1 | 180.2 | -3.2 | -1.8 |
| All-items CPI excluding food and energy | 73.93 | 114.3 | 116.7 | 116.2 | -0.4 | 1.7 |
| Goods | 47.80 | 112.8 | 114.7 | 113.5 | -1.0 | 0.6 |
| Services | 52.20 | 126.8 | 129.5 | 129.6 | 0.1 | 2.2 |
