Gas Price Moderation Kicks In
Even with oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, Gas prices moderating has caused the CPI increase year over year to slow down according to Stats Canada. The CPI increase year over year for May is only 1.4% which is down from last month’s year over year increase of 1.8% (a 22% drop).
The overall energy story continues to moderate a little and it’s increase (year over year) is down 33% from last month’s year over year numbers, which is helping the CPI numbers look a little rosier. If you exclude Energy (although why you would, is a better question) the CPI really only increased by 1.0% (a very rosey number).
As this graph shows the price of gas is not vacillating in as wild a fashion as we have had in the past little while, so this will help moderate the whole CPI picture (and hopefully will not cause “knock on” increases in other areas that rely on Transport or Energy as part of their pricing).
The Really Big Table
The following table from Stats Canada shows the areas where both the Stats Canada CPI and Bank of Canada CPI increased the most.
The creep in Health and Personal Care continues, since this is a huge growth industry in the world, with the aging population constantly in search of the fountain of youth, or the best repairs to be made to aging bodies.
|  | CANSIM vector number | Relative importance | Indexes | Percentage change May 2010 from | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May  2010 | April  2010 | May  2009 | April  2010 | May  2009 | |||
| Â | Â | 2002=100 | |||||
| All-items | (v41690973) | 100.0 | 116.3 | 116.0 | 114.7 | 0.3 | 1.4 |
| Food | (v41690974) | 17.0 | 122.9 | 122.8 | 121.9 | 0.1 | 0.8 |
| Shelter | (v41691050) | 26.6 | 123.0 | 122.4 | 121.4 | 0.5 | 1.3 |
| Household operations, furnishings and equipment | (v41691067) | 11.1 | 108.6 | 108.5 | 107.6 | 0.1 | 0.9 |
| Clothing and footwear | (v41691108) | 5.4 | 92.7 | 94.1 | 93.9 | -1.5 | -1.3 |
| Transportation | (v41691128) | 19.9 | 118.1 | 117.4 | 113.5 | 0.6 | 4.1 |
| Health and personal care | (v41691153) | 4.7 | 114.6 | 114.8 | 112.1 | -0.2 | 2.2 |
| Recreation, education and reading | (v41691170) | 12.2 | 103.6 | 102.9 | 103.8 | 0.7 | -0.2 |
| Alcoholic beverages and tobacco products | (v41691206) | 3.1 | 132.1 | 131.8 | 131.2 | 0.2 | 0.7 |
| All-items (1992=100) | (v41713403) | . | 138.5 | 138.1 | 136.6 | 0.3 | 1.4 |
| Special aggregates | Â | ||||||
| Goods | (v41691222) | 48.8 | 109.4 | 109.4 | 108.1 | 0.0 | 1.2 |
| Durable goods | (v41691223) | 13.3 | 87.7 | 87.4 | 87.6 | 0.3 | 0.1 |
| Semi-durable goods | (v41691224) | 7.2 | 94.1 | 95.4 | 94.7 | -1.4 | -0.6 |
| Non-durable goods | (v41691225) | 28.2 | 125.8 | 125.4 | 123.1 | 0.3 | 2.2 |
| Services | (v41691230) | 51.2 | 123.2 | 122.6 | 121.3 | 0.5 | 1.6 |
| All-items excluding food | (v41691232) | 83.0 | 115.0 | 114.6 | 113.2 | 0.3 | 1.6 |
| All-items excluding food and energy | (v41691233) | 73.6 | 112.8 | 112.5 | 111.7 | 0.3 | 1.0 |
| All-items excluding energy | (v41691238) | 90.6 | 114.6 | 114.4 | 113.5 | 0.2 | 1.0 |
| All-items excluding gasoline | (v41693245) | 95.1 | 115.1 | 114.8 | 113.8 | 0.3 | 1.1 |
| All-items excluding shelter, insurance and financial services | (v41693246) | 69.9 | 112.2 | 112.2 | 110.8 | 0.0 | 1.3 |
| Energy | (v41691239) | 9.4 | 137.4 | 136.0 | 129.4 | 1.0 | 6.2 |
| All-items excluding alcoholic beverages, tobacco products and smokers’ supplies | (v41691241) | 96.9 | 115.7 | 115.4 | 114.1 | 0.3 | 1.4 |
| Core Consumer Price Index (CPI) (Bank of Canada definition) | (v41693242) | 82.7 | 115.7 | 115.3 | 113.7 | 0.3 | 1.8 |
Why do all the fun things in life like Cars, Tobacco and Liquor always out-strip the inflation rate?
I guess it’s the price of living, and
having fun
!