Canada's Inflation Rate Is Down & Here's How Your Life Might Get A Bit More Affordable
You might see this change in your phone bill!
A Canadian government building. Right: A Petro-Canada gas station.
Canada's inflation rate for January has been released and there's some good news for the future.
The national inflation rate has actually gone down and you might see that reflected in some essential bills.
Per the Statistics Canada, the national inflation rate was at 5.9% in January, a drop from the 6.3% rate that we experienced in December.
This drop is the product of a few things, the biggest being cellular services and housing costs which have seen a decrease.
However, that isn't to say that you will see a decrease in the cost of all essentials as food and fuel prices continue to rise.
In fact, if you exclude the cost of food and fuel from the equation, the Consumer Price Index (which is what is used to measure inflation) shows prices rose at only 4.9%.
As of now, Canadians across the board can expect to see a decrease in the cost of cellular services of 7.9% in January since the same time last year.
Another decrease you can expect to see is in both shelter prices and passenger vehicle prices.
The general cost of a roof over your head is increasing more slowly with a year-over rate of 6.6% in January but is still down from the previous month's rate of 7%.
As for buying a vehicle, the January rate is 6.2%, which is down a whole 1% since the previous month.
However, these decreases are not the case across the board, especially when you look at the cost of food. In January, food increased by 10.4% from the previous year, which is more than December's 10.1%.
You can see the hikes most in items such as bakery products (15.5%), dairy (12.4%), fresh vegetables (14.7%) and meat (7.3%).
Not only are groceries on the up, but the price of going out to eat has also gone up by 8.2% in the last twelve months.
Gasoline is more expensive when looked at on a month-to-month basis, with pump prices going up by 4.7% from December 2022 to January. However, from January 2022 that increase is 2.9%.
Of course, it should be mentioned that just because the inflation rate is going down, that doesn't necessarily mean that we will see prices decrease. It merely means that the rate at which the cost of products is increasing is slowing down.
So, maybe don't expect a major drop in your bills just yet.
Over the past year, Canada has seen a slew of products and services go up in price due to inflation, which the Bank of Canada combatted with increases to the national interest rate.
This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.