There is still no let-up when it comes to higher prices in restaurants, retail, and every corner of life, as the Canadian inflation rate has hit 7.7 per cent — its highest point since 1983.
Canada’s inflation rate rose at its fastest pace in almost four decades years in the year up to May, found Statistics Canada. The soaring price of gasoline is a major culprit. Gas prices in Canada rose by 12 per cent in May alone, and are up 48 per cent year over year.
Food prices were also a major factor. Grocery bills have increased by 9.7 per cent over the past year and total food costs are up 8.8 per cent from a year ago. That has been led by the cost of edible fats and oils skyrocketing 30 per cent, the fastest increase on record. Fresh vegetable prices rose 10.3 per cent.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a major factor in that uptick, as Ukraine is one of the world’s leading suppliers of sunflower oil, of which there is now a huge shortage.
According to CBC, while economists has been expecting the rate to increase from a 30-year high of 6.8 per cent in April, the realized rise has been more than anticipated. Prices increased by 1.4 per cent in the month of May alone. Seasonally adjusted, that makes May 2022 the biggest one-month jump in the Canadian inflation rate in 30 years.
The inflation rate rose in every province, from a low of seven per cent in Saskatchewan to a high of 11.1 per cent in Prince Edward Island.
Canadians desperately worried
A new Ipsos survey has found that a vast majority of Canadian households, especially those with kids, are worried about feeding their families amid the decades-high inflation.
Polling from Ipsos conducted for Global News earlier this month shows that 72 per cent of families with kids are worried about putting food on the table, and so are 57 per cent of households without children.
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Gregory Jack, Ipsos vice-president of public affairs in Canada, told Global that younger, working-age Canadians are increasingly stressed about finances more than their parents and grandparents who lived through the high inflationary periods of the 1980s.
“Younger Canadians are looking at a situation that they haven’t seen in their lifetime,” Jack said. “You can see why all of this is kind of piling on all at the same time. This is a unique period in Canadian history.”
The poll also found that as inflation rises, eight in 10 Canadians are concerned their salaries are not going to keep pace with inflation.
