Machinery and equipment price indexes
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The Machinery and Equipment Price Index (MEPI) rose 3.3% in the fourth quarter compared with the previous quarter. The import component was up 5.2% over this period, while the domestic component increased 0.2%.
All industries posted increases in prices of machinery and equipment purchased in the fourth quarter. The largest contributor to the total MEPI quarterly increase was manufacturing (+3.3%), led by transportation equipment manufacturing (+3.1%) and primary metal and fabricated metal product manufacturing (+3.2%) industries. The second largest contributor to the quarterly increase of the total MEPI was finance, insurance and real estate (+3.7%).
On a commodity basis, almost all commodities posted price increases in the fourth quarter. Among these, trucks, road tractors and chassis (+6.4%) and other industry specific machinery (+3.9%) contributed the most to the quarterly increase of the total MEPI.
The Canadian dollar depreciated 4.2% against the US dollar in the fourth quarter compared with the previous quarter. Variations in exchange rates can have a strong influence on the MEPI given the high weight that imported machinery and equipment has on the index.
Compared with the fourth quarter of 2010, the total MEPI increased 2.4%, with the import component rising 3.1% and the domestic component up 1.1%. The movement in the import component was partly influenced by the year-over-year change in the Canadian dollar (-1.0%) against the US dollar.
Note: This release presents data that are not seasonally adjusted and the indexes published are subject to a four-quarter revision period after dissemination of a given quarter's data.
Available without charge in CANSIM: tables 327-0041 and 327-0042.
Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 2312.
The fourth quarter 2011 issue of Capital Expenditure Price Statistics (62-007-X, free) will be available in April.
The machinery and equipment price indexes for the first quarter of 2012 will be released on May 24.
For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Statistics Canada's National Contact Centre (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 613-951-8116; infostats@statcan.gc.ca) or the Media Hotline (613-951-4636), Communications Division.
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