Inflation continues to rise in Canada and Quebec

With this new peak, Canada is approaching a mark of 6.9% inflation that was set in January 1991, more than three decades ago. For its part, Quebec, as usual for several months, came up against the national average by also posting an inflation rate of 6.8% over 12 months, up 0.1 points from March.

The cost of groceries is higher than it has ever been.

When adjusted for month-to-month changes in the price of gasoline, the annual percentage rate of inflation was 5.8 percent in April, up from 5.5 percent in March.

According to Statistics Canada, “this is the largest increase in the special aggregate of the all-items CPI excluding gasoline since its introduction in 1999.” This finding provides further evidence that soaring housing and food prices play a significant role in the generation of inflationary pressures.

It is important to note that the cost of food and groceries was 9.7 percent higher in April compared to the same month a year earlier, as reported by Statistics Canada.

The rise, which has been more than 5 percent for the sixth month in a row, is the highest it has been since September of 1981. According to the statement made by the government body, “for the purpose of comparison, from 2010 to 2020, there have been five months of rises of 5 percent or more in the cost of food that was purchased from a shop.”

There is no kind of food that is immune to inflation, but those that include wheat are being hit especially hard as a result of the conflict in Ukraine.

Because of this, bread (+12.2 percent), pasta (+19.6 percent), and cereal items (+13.9 percent) are notably impacted, while fruit (+10 percent), vegetables (+8.2 percent), and meat (+10.1 percent) follow not too far behind.

In addition, the cost of renting a property maintained its upward trend, increasing by 4.3 percent in Quebec and 4.5 percent nationally during the last year.

Because of this, gasoline prices did not contribute as much to the increase in the Consumer Price Index in April as they did in March. This is because the amount spent at the pump decreased somewhat in April (-0.7 percent), after having increased by 11.8 percent in March.

According to Statistics Canada, “Consumers spent 36.3 percent more for gasoline year over year in April,” which is a decrease from the 39.8 percent increase seen in March.