Consumer prices were up 1.2% in British Columbia year-over-year to November, which is slightly higher than October’s growth of 1.1%.
This gives the province one of the lowest increases to the Statistics Canada’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the month. B.C. was also the only province to see a faster year-over-year increase in November than in October.
After a 2.4% increase in October, prices grew 2.0% Canada-wide. Growth slowed over the month due to plummeting gas prices; in the 12 months to November the price of gas fell 5.9% after a 0.6% increase in October.
All provinces saw decreased gas prices, but B.C. had the country’s smallest decline with 1.5%. This comes after a dip of 0.9% in October.
Price growth across the country was in the range of analysts’ expectations.
“Headline inflation in Canada remains 0.7 percentage points above its U.S. counterpart (at 1.3%), but that’s not a bad thing when much of the industrialized world is grappling with inflation that’s too low for comfort,” said Douglas Porter, BMO chief economist and managing director, economic research
“Meantime, the Bank of Canada now seems to be sitting pretty with both headline and core inflation almost bang-on the 2% target.”
He went on to say the recent drop in the Canadian dollar had little effect on inflation.
“Heavy discounting around Black Friday – a relatively new tradition in Canada – likely held down clothing prices, which were down 2.3% month-over-month, although still up 2.8% year-over-year.” Porter said.
