More fun with numbers in November, where if you just read the first line of the report from Stats Canada about the Consumer Price Index for November 2015, you would read:
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 1.4% in the 12 months to November, after increasing 1.0% in October.
Doesn’t that sound like great news? Inflation running at 1.4%, which is very low, however, dig a little deeper and you find out that:
Prices were up in seven of the eight major components on a year-over-year basis in November, with the food and shelter indexes contributing the most to the rise in the CPI. The transportation index, which includes gasoline, recorded its smallest decrease since November 2014.
Food prices were up 3.4% in the 12 months to November, after rising 4.1% in October. The index for food purchased from stores registered a 3.7% year-over-year gain, following a 4.6% increase the previous month. While prices for fresh vegetables and meat contributed the most to the gain, they increased less year over year in November than October. Prices for food purchased from restaurants were up 2.8% on a year-over-year basis in November, following a 2.7% increase in October.
Cough, Cough! What?!? Man, we need to really figure out how we can drink gasoline, because it seems to be the cheapest thing to buy these days, in terms of foodstuffs. If you feel you didn’t quite “get” what that paragraph said, have a look at this graphic.
An interesting graphic is this one, which shows the growth of the “basket of goods” price growth over the past 5 years.
Inflation-Control Target From Bank of Canada
Luckily the Bank of Canada measures inflation a little differently.
The Bank of Canada’s core index was up 2.0% in the 12 months to November, following a 2.1% rise in October.
The seasonally adjusted core index was up 0.1% on a monthly basis in November, after increasing 0.2% in October.
Reports from Previous Months in 2015
If you want to have a walk down memory lane about how prices have been going up, here you go.
- Gas Prices Drive Down Inflation in December to 1.5%
- Lower Prices in January in Canada, Pull the Other Leg
- Expensive Food in Canada in March
- Prices up 0.8% in April or More Fun with Numbers
- Inflation at 0.9% for May (maybe)
- Gas Dampens CPI for July
- Inflation and Silly Gasoline Tricks Continues in August
- Canadians Paid 3.9% More For Food in September
- Canadians Paid Even More For Food in October (4.1%)
I wonder how much of our increased food cost is attributable to the rising $USD?
A fair amount (I would guess), given Cauliflower in Ottawa is $8 a head (and it is Spanish too).