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Canajun Finances Home » Good Food Still Is Not Cheap in Canada (Inflation for March 2016)

Good Food Still Is Not Cheap in Canada (Inflation for March 2016)

Friday, Stats Canada published their monthly Consumer Price Index Report, and showed that while on the surface Prices are not going up much, if you look a little closer, eating Good Food (i.e. Fresh Veggies and Fruit) continues to skyrocket (in comparison to the overall index).

There actual statement in their generic report states:

Excluding gasoline, the CPI rose 1.9% year over year in March, matching the increase in February.

Six of the 8 major categories had increases, which suggests that if you claim that CPI is running at 1.3%, there must be some components dropping significantly to reflect this low number, and (as usual) Gasoline, Natural Gas, and Fuel Oil are the big ones.

CPI For Past 5 Years
Five Year CPI Graph with and Without Gasoline

Main contributors to the 12-month change in the CPI:

Main upward contributors:

  1. Purchase of passenger vehicles (+3.2%)
  2. Electricity (+7.5%)
  3. Fresh vegetables (+14.9%)
  4. Food purchased from restaurants (+2.6%)
  5. Fresh fruit (+11.3%)

Main downward contributors:

  1. Gasoline (-13.6%)
  2. Natural gas (-17.4%)
  3. Fuel oil (-25.8%)
  4. Mortgage interest cost (-1.5%)
  5. Women’s clothing (-1.8%)

As you can see nothing you can eat is getting cheaper, and note also that most power and resource types are dropping in price, however, electricity (allegedly the power of the future) is still going up in price. In Ontario the price increase is even more marked.

Bank of Canada’s core index

The Bank of Canada’s core index increased 2.1% in the 12 months to March, after rising 1.9% in February.

This suggests the Bank of Canada will not be able to blame Inflation as a reason to raise Interest Rates (for now).

Reports from the Past While.

If you want to have a walk down memory lane about how prices have been going up, here you go.

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