Our amigos at Stats Canada published the latest Consumer Price Index numbers on Friday and it seems that the CPI is stabilizing a little, however, it is still near the Bank of Canada’s threshold where they might bring higher interest rates to control it.
The culprit for these rising prices continues to be Energy in general and gasoline in specific, which is pointed out:
Energy prices rose 9.0% during the 12 months to January, following a 10.5% increase in December. Gasoline prices increased 13.0% in January, matching the increase in December. Consumers also paid 6.4% more for electricity in January compared with the same month last year.
Gas prices have moderated around Ottawa, however, they show no signs of dropping (hovering around $1.15 a liter). My guess is that we are going to see even higher prices coming given all the fun and excitement in the Middle East.
As the graphic shows that Energy still has a huge sway in the CPI.
Not Just Energy
The CPI increase cannot just be blamed on Energy, as most of the other indexes were up as well. Clothing and Footwear were the only two areas where prices were not up (in a seasonally adjusted fashion). All prices going up and Gasoline leading the way? Sounds like a recipe for an inflation spiral kick start? Maybe!
The BIG Table
As my regular readers know, I also like to publish one of the tables from the monthly report to show where increases are exactly. Â Given I have already show the increases by Category, let’s have a look at inflation by area of Canada:
| Relative import | January 2010 | December 2010 | January 2011 | Dec 2010 to Jan 2011 | Jan 2010 to Jan 2011 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Not seasonally adjusted | ||||||
| % | (2002=100) | % change | ||||
| Canada | 100.00 | 115.1 | 117.5 | 117.8 | 0.3 | 2.3 |
| Newfoundland and Labrador | 1.27 | 116.5 | 118.1 | 119.0 | 0.8 | 2.1 |
| Prince Edward Island | 0.35 | 118.7 | 119.9 | 120.1 | 0.2 | 1.2 |
| Nova Scotia | 2.56 | 116.9 | 119.4 | 120.4 | 0.8 | 3.0 |
| New Brunswick | 1.97 | 115.4 | 116.6 | 117.2 | 0.5 | 1.6 |
| Québec | 21.05 | 114.0 | 115.8 | 116.4 | 0.5 | 2.1 |
| Ontario | 41.22 | 114.5 | 117.9 | 117.8 | -0.1 | 2.9 |
| Manitoba | 3.06 | 114.3 | 115.6 | 116.6 | 0.9 | 2.0 |
| Saskatchewan | 2.64 | 117.5 | 119.4 | 120.1 | 0.6 | 2.2 |
| Alberta | 11.43 | 122.3 | 122.9 | 123.5 | 0.5 | 1.0 |
| British Columbia | 14.29 | 112.2 | 114.6 | 114.8 | 0.2 | 2.3 |
| Whitehorse | 0.06 | 113.9 | 115.6 | 115.9 | 0.3 | 1.8 |
| Yellowknife | 0.08 | 116.8 | 119.2 | 119.3 | 0.1 | 2.1 |
| Iqaluit (Dec. 2002=100) | 0.02 | 111.3 | 112.1 | 112.5 | 0.4 | 1.1 |
I can certainly relate to rising prices- especially gasoline! I have always felt that if more of the general public would adapt to more sustainable and greener ways of transportation, then we would decrease so much of the spending budgets around energy. Maybe it will take a natural disaster to knock people into some sense!