Consumer Price Index, November 2023
Released: 2023-12-19
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 3.1% on a year-over-year basis in November, matching the 3.1% increase in October. In November, higher prices for travel tours put upward pressure on the CPI. Offsetting the upward pressure was slower price growth, on a year-over-year basis, for food alongside lower prices for cellular services and fuel oil. Excluding food and energy, the CPI increased 3.5% in November, following a 3.4% gain in October.
Canadians continued to feel the impact of higher prices for mortgage interest costs (+29.8%), food purchased from stores (+4.7%) and rent (+7.4%), which were the largest contributors to the year-over-year increase in November.
On a monthly basis, the CPI rose 0.1% in November, the same growth rate as in October (+0.1%). Gasoline prices fell to a lesser extent month over month in November (-3.5%) compared with October (-6.4%), putting upward pressure on the monthly CPI figure. On a seasonally adjusted monthly basis, the CPI rose 0.3% in November.
Chart 1
12-month change in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and CPI excluding food and energy
Chart 2
Year-over-year slowdowns in food and shelter were offset by increases in recreation and clothing
Grocery prices continue to increase at a slower pace
Prices for food purchased from stores continued to increase in November (+4.7%) but at a slower pace compared with October (+5.4%), with broad-based decelerations across food components. This marked the fifth consecutive month that grocery price growth slowed year over year, with prices for non-alcoholic beverages (-0.6%), fresh vegetables (+2.5%) and other food preparations (+6.4%) contributing the most to the slowdown. Food prices continue to be driven by a variety of international and domestic factors.
In contrast, prices for meat (+5.0%), preserved vegetables and vegetable preparations (+5.8%) and sugar and confectionery (+8.3%) increased at a faster pace on a year-over-year basis in November compared with October.
Chart 3
Broad-based year-over-year slowdowns across the food component
Prices for services remain elevated in November
Prices for services remained elevated in November, rising 4.6% year over year, unchanged from October (+4.6%). Prices for travel tours accelerated on a year-over-year basis in November (+26.1%) compared with October (+11.3%), mainly attributable to events held in destination cities in the United States during November.
Offsetting the acceleration in travel tours was a decline in prices for cellular services. Consumers who signed on to a cell phone plan in November paid 22.6% less than those who did so in November 2022, as a variety of promotions across the industry, ahead of Black Friday, offered reduced prices for cellular phone plans, as well as bonus data.
Chart 4
Prices for services increase more than prices for goods
Shrinkflation info-sheet
Statistics Canada has released an info-sheet, "Measuring pure price change: Exploring Shrinkflation in the Consumer Price Index."
Explore the Consumer Price Index tools
Check out Statistics Canada's new Food Price Data Hub, which features a variety of food price related statistics, articles and tools.
To find a list of all recent publications regarding the Consumer Price Index (CPI), consult our Recent Analytical Products page.
Check out the Personal Inflation Calculator. This interactive calculator allows you to enter dollar amounts in the common expense categories to produce a personalized inflation rate, which you can compare to the official measure of inflation for the average Canadian household—the CPI.
Browse the Consumer Price Index Data Visualization Tool to access current (Latest Snapshot of the CPI) and historical (Price trends: 1914 to today) CPI data in a customizable visual format.
Regional highlights
Year over year, prices increased in all provinces in November but rose at a slower pace compared with October in six provinces.
Chart 5
The Consumer Price Index rises at a slower pace in six provinces
Energy prices fall to a greater extent year over year
Energy prices fell to a greater extent year over year in November (-5.7%) compared with October (-5.4%), led by lower prices for fuel oil. Prices for fuel oil and other fuels fell 23.6% at the national level in November, after a 12.6% decline in October. The temporary suspension of the federal carbon levy on fuel oil contributed to the decline.
Electricity prices rose 8.2% year over year in November, following a 6.7% increase in October, moderating the decline in energy prices. The acceleration in electricity prices was largely the result of higher prices in Ontario (+7.0%), stemming from increased time-of-use rates in the province.
Chart 6
Energy prices fall, led by lower prices for fuel oil
Note to readers
Visit the Consumer Price Index portal to find all Consumer Price Index (CPI) data, publications, interactive tools and announcements highlighting new products and upcoming changes to the CPI in one convenient location.
Shelter overview paper
Today, Statistics Canada released the paper, "Shelter in the Canadian CPI: An overview, 2023 update." This article describes the concepts and methodologies related to the construction of the shelter component and discusses considerations to be considered when using the estimates.
Upcoming change to the core inflation measures data
With the release of the January 2024 CPI on February 20, the CPI-trim and CPI-median year-over-year change figures will be calculated based on index values rounded to one decimal place.
Previously, the year-over-year change figures of these two measures of core inflation were calculated based on full precision (unrounded) index values. In February 2023, Statistics Canada began publishing index-level data series for the CPI-trim and CPI-median, which are rounded to one decimal place, as all indexes in the CPI are published at this level of precision. Therefore, year-over-year changes in these core inflation measures calculated using the latter will not necessarily align with the published year-over-year change figures due to rounding differences.
To eliminate this incoherence, the year-over-year change figures for CPI-trim and CPI-median will be calculated based on index values rounded to one decimal place. As a result of this change, the historical year-over-year change figures for CPI-trim and CPI-median will be revised back to January 1990. These revisions will not exceed +/- 0.1 percentage points.
This change has no impact on the All-items CPI, the seasonally adjusted All-items CPI or the CPI-common.
Real-time data tables
Real-time data table 18-10-0259-01 will be updated on January 2, 2024. For more information, consult the document "Real-time data tables."
Next release
The CPI for December 2023, along with the Consumer Price Index Annual Review, will be released on January 16, 2024.
Products
The "Consumer Price Index Data Visualization Tool" is available on the Statistics Canada website.
More information on the concepts and use of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) is available in The Canadian Consumer Price Index Reference Paper (62-553-X).
For information on the history of the CPI in Canada, consult the publication Exploring the First Century of Canada's Consumer Price Index (62-604-X).
Two videos, "An Overview of Canada's Consumer Price Index (CPI)" and "The Consumer Price Index and Your Experience of Price Change," are available on Statistics Canada's YouTube channel.
Find out answers to the most common questions posed about the CPI in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.
Contact information
For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; infostats@statcan.gc.ca) or Media Relations (statcan.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.statcan@statcan.gc.ca).
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