Canada’s inflation rate decelerates to 6.9% but food prices continue to climb

By Pete Evans

2022.10.19

Canada’s official inflation rate slowed for the third month in a row in September, even as many goods and services continued to get more expensive.

Statistics Canada reported Wednesday that the consumer price index declined to 6.9 per cent in September, down from seven per cent in August. 

The rate seems to have peaked at a 40-year high of 8.1 per cent in June.

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Economists had been expecting an even bigger drop off, to about 6.7 per cent, but food prices pulled the headline number up.

Food purchased at stores increased at a pace of 11.4 per cent. That’s the fastest pace of increase in grocery bills since August 1981.

Some of the price increases in the grocery aisle in the past year are eye-popping:

• Cereals are up 17.9 per cent.
• Baked goods are up 14.8 per cent.
• Fresh fruit is up by 12.9 per cent.
• Fresh vegetables are up by 11.8 per cent.
• Dairy products are up by 9.7 per cent.
• Meat prices are up by 7.6 per cent.

The number means food inflation is almost twice as much as the overall inflation rate. Food inflation has now been higher than the overall rate for 10 months in a row.