Food prices varied greatly between the rest of Canada and BC during August’s Consumer Price Index.
Stats Canada Analyst, Michel Sekimonyo breaks down the differences. “So at the national level, we saw a big deceleration in food prices from 1.6% year-over-year in July dropping to 1.1% in August where BC prices were up 2.0% in the 12 month period in August.”
The biggest difference came at the bakery according to Sekimonyo. “The index for bakery products was at 4.8% in BC compared to 1.1% at the national level and what we saw in British Columbia was the largest year-over-year increase since January of 2016.”
BC’s CPI rose 2.0% in August which is a decline of 0.1% from July’s 2.1% hike.
Two categories from the clothing index contributed to the decline. “Children clothing index posted its first decrease since February of 2015 of 1.1% and the women’s clothing posted no change in the last 12 months, this comes after they were up 3.7% in July.”
Gasoline prices declined 9.2% on a yearly basis in August compared to 8.6% in July.