On Friday our friends from Stats Canada published their monthly report on the Consumer Price Index for August 2015, and their findings are similar to those from earlier months in 2015.
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 1.3% in the 12 months to August, matching the increase in July…. Lower energy prices continued to moderate the year-over-year rise in the CPI, led by the gasoline index, which was down 12.6% year over year in August.
So the story continues with many areas rising by a fair amount, while gasoline dampens the overall index.
As you see we are closer to 2.0% inflation, than we are the “actual” 1.3%. Food is up 3.6% (year over year), which impacts most Canadians, but due to Energy and Transport being down 7.2% and 2.3% no one seems to notice that feeding ourselves continues to be an ever-increasing commodity. Doesn’t even seem to be an election issue, haven’t heard anybody talk about it.
This graphic is useful to see how the numbers are skewed:
Bank of Canada’s core index
Just remember that the bank of Canada uses their own data to calculate inflation, and there numbers are more telling:
The Bank of Canada’s core index was up 2.1% in the 12 months to August, following a 2.4% rise in July
It is interesting that this is really not a topic on the election trail.
