The January 2017 Consumer Price Index numbers came in from Stats Canada and it seems like gasoline pushed inflation to 2.1 % year over year in January 2017. A rate of 2.1% enters the Bank of Canada worrisome zone. Using the Bank of Canada’s measures things are not as worrisome. If you check the Bank’s site, their numbers show below 2.0% which is in their “acceptable” zone.
Highlights for January 2017
Main contributors to the 12-month change in the CPI, Main upward contributors:
- Gasoline (+20.6%)
- Purchase of passenger vehicles (+3.8%)
- Homeowners’ replacement cost (+4.3%)
- Natural gas (+15.6%)
- Food purchased from restaurants (+2.3%)
Main downward contributors:
- Fresh vegetables (-15.5%)
- Fresh fruit (-10.8%)
- Meat (-1.7%)
- Bakery products (-3.2%)
- Cereal products (excluding baby food) (-5.3%)
Great news there in that fresh fruit and veggies are lower in price. We should all be eating a bit more healthy this month! The very bad news is Gas and Natural Gas prices sky-rocketing. Might want to turn the furnace down a little, and look at those hybrids again?
Historical Electricity Prices?
Stats Canada added a fun historical section, and this month, electricity prices.
Electricity has maintained approximately the same basket weight for the past 30 years. Since the basket update in 1986, the basket weight for electricity has ranged from 1.93% to 2.77% of the all-items CPI, and averaged 2.43%.
Given how much electricity prices have shot up in Ontario, wonder if this remains true?
Graph of the Month
CPI with and without gasoline prices is always an exciting graph to check out.
2017 Inflation Discussion
So far 2017 has only one discussion:
