Rob Roach, ATB Economics | November 17, 2021

Inflation in Alberta above 4% for third month in a row

We were expecting the inflation rate to remain elevated and it did not disappoint in October.

Numbers released today by Statistics Canada show that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for Alberta rose 4.3% on a year-over-year basis in October. The national inflation rate was 4.7%.

Prince Edward Island had the highest inflation rate at 6.6% while British Columbia had the lowest at 3.8%.

Although not as high as the double-digit inflation we went through in the early 1980s, October’s rate is over 2.5 times higher than the average for the 84 months between January 2014 and December 2020. It is also well above the Bank of Canada’s target of 2%.

Prices in Alberta increased in 6 of the 8 major components of the CPI.

Clothing and footwear prices were down by 2.0% while prices for household operations, furnishings and equipment edged down slightly by 0.1%.

Transportation costs, which include gasoline, were up the most at 11.8% followed by shelter at 4.2% and food at 4.0%. Gasoline alone was up by 40.5% compared to October 2020 with energy in general up by 32.7%.

If energy costs are excluded, the inflation rate falls to 2.4%.

Answer to the previous trivia question: The world’s largest container ships can carry 24,000 “twenty-foot equivalent” containers.

Today’s trivia question: When was the last time the annual inflation rate in the United States was above 10%?

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