Canada's inflation rate slowed down in July, but grocery prices spiked

After breaking a bunch of records, Canada has finally slowed down on the inflation front, as the rate fell in July — but the opposite happened to grocery prices.

According to Statistics Canada, the Consumer Price Index stood at a startling 8.1% in June on a year-over-year basis. Such a spike hadn’t been seen in the country in 39 years.

In July, the CPI rose 7.6%, and Statistics Canada believes this may be due to the dip in gas prices.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 7.6% on a year-over-year basis in July, down from an 8.1% gain in June.
Learn more: https://t.co/Sw3ITi04wV. pic.twitter.com/qKECQRwpLc

— Statistics Canada (@StatCan_eng) August 16, 2022

“While gasoline prices declined on a monthly basis in July, prices for other non-durable goods like natural gas and groceries rose,” reads the federal statistics agency’s latest report.

You might also like:
• Inflation has officially hit 8.1% and broken another record in Canadian history
• Star investigation finds Canada's major grocers are profiting off of inflation
• Bank of Canada interest rate up by 1% in biggest spike since 1998

“Prices for food purchased from stores increased more on a year-over-year basis in July (+9.9%) than in June (+9.4%).”

This may have led to heightened cost of buying food from restaurants (+7.3%) in July. It also accelerated way faster than it did in to June.

Canadians also paid 25.5% more in airfare in July, as airports juggled with unmanageable passenger traffic, flight delays, and cancellations.

Possibly lending to the spike in travel, hotels and traveller accommodation costs hit 47.7% compared to July 2021. Ontario bore the brunt of this with a staggering 70% price increase.

So while, overall, there’s been an inflation rate slowdown, largely due to gas prices plummeting, it’s likely that rising grocery prices will continue to make living in Canada harder to afford.