Just before the long weekend our friends at Stats Canada published their monthly Consumer Price Index review and they claimed that Inflation for the last 12 months (ending in April) Inflation ran at 0.4%, to which I call, Poppycock! (apologize for the potty mouth).
Gas prices are again the reason that prices are allegedly not going up that fast, however, we have also seen this past weekend, Gas prices jumping 7 cents a litre for no real reason except a need to gouge the hell out of consumers on a long weekend. Oil prices have not moved in the past few months, yet somehow there is a Gas shortage? We are desecrating the environment in Alberta that would make the Leaders of the Industrial Revolution wince, yet gas prices are going up? Wow…
OK, enough of a rant on that, here is a graph to show inflation with and without Gas included, which suggests our reliance on fossil fuels is not dwindling as much as the Granola Crunching Generation would hope:
So as we can see Gasoline is still the most important part of the Consumer Price Index. Want to see just how wacky Gasoline prices have been over the past little while?
Food prices continue to track at about 1.5% year over year price increase, while clothing continues to drop (for all you lovers of clothes produced in 3rd world sweat shops (as opposed to the 20th century where it was North American sweat shops)).
If you look at the seasonally adjust CPI, we in fact had a drop in CPI in April:
Bank of Canada’s core index
As we know the Bank of Canada has their own way of measuring the CPI, but with their “slide rules” they have calculated inflation to be well below their threshold of excitement:
The Bank of Canada’s core index rose 1.1% in the 12 months to April, following a 1.4% increase in March.On a monthly basis, the seasonally adjusted core index posted no change in April, after rising 0.2% in March.
The Big Table
As usual I include one of the big tables from Stats Canada to help you comprehend where you are spending more:
Consumer Price Index and major components, Canada – Not seasonally adjusted
| Relative importance1 | April 2012 | March 2013 | April 2013 | March to April 2013 | April 2012 to April 2013 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| % | (2002=100) | % change | ||||
| All-items Consumer Price Index (CPI) | 100.002 | 122.2 | 122.9 | 122.7 | -0.2 | 0.4 |
| Food | 16.60 | 130.1 | 132.4 | 132.1 | -0.2 | 1.5 |
| Shelter | 26.26 | 126.6 | 128.0 | 128.2 | 0.2 | 1.3 |
| Household operations, furnishings and equipment | 12.66 | 112.6 | 114.7 | 114.3 | -0.3 | 1.5 |
| Clothing and footwear | 5.82 | 95.3 | 95.3 | 94.7 | -0.6 | -0.6 |
| Transportation | 19.98 | 131.3 | 129.5 | 128.6 | -0.7 | -2.1 |
| Health and personal care | 4.93 | 118.9 | 118.3 | 118.6 | 0.3 | -0.3 |
| Recreation, education and reading | 10.96 | 105.4 | 105.2 | 105.2 | 0.0 | -0.2 |
| Alcoholic beverages and tobacco products | 2.79 | 137.7 | 139.8 | 140.1 | 0.2 | 1.7 |
| Special aggregates | ||||||
| Core CPI3 | 84.91 | 119.7 | 120.9 | 121.0 | 0.1 | 1.1 |
| All-items CPI excluding energy | 91.44 | 119.1 | 120.0 | 119.9 | -0.1 | 0.7 |
| Energy4 | 8.56 | 161.0 | 159.9 | 158.0 | -1.2 | -1.9 |
| Gasoline | 4.62 | 192.9 | 186.5 | 181.3 | -2.8 | -6.0 |
| All-items CPI excluding food and energy | 74.85 | 116.6 | 117.2 | 117.2 | 0.0 | 0.5 |
| Goods | 48.18 | 115.3 | 115.4 | 114.9 | -0.4 | -0.3 |
| Services | 51.82 | 129.1 | 130.3 | 130.3 | 0.0 | 0.9 |
Well I guess if inflation is under 0.5% then I am staying ahead of inflation with my money in the bank at 1.35%…….Why do I not actually believe that?
When I excluded gas (and clothes/food other variable costs) the real rate of inflation on our 2012 fixed costs (nat gas; electricity; water; property tax; house insurance; car insurance; cable; telephone; internet) was
1.6%.
Guess I’d better try to find something better than a bank account.