Consumer Price Index, November 2019
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Released: 2019-12-18
November 2019
2.2% 
(12-month change)
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 2.2% on a year-over-year basis in November, up from a 1.9% increase in each of the previous three months. Excluding gasoline, the CPI rose 2.3% in November, matching the increase from October.
On a seasonally adjusted monthly basis, the CPI rose 0.1% in November, following a 0.3% increase in October.
Chart 1
The 12-month change in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and CPI excluding gasoline
Visit the Consumer Price Index Portal!
Statistics Canada has launched a Consumer Price Index Portal as part of a suite of portals for prices and price indexes. The CPI Portal centralizes all CPI information and products in one convenient location on the Statistics Canada website. This webpage serves as a single point of access for users to find CPI data, publications, interactive tools, and announcements highlighting new products and upcoming changes to the CPI.
Highlights
Energy prices rose 1.5% year over year in November after declining by 2.9% in October. Gasoline prices drove the increase in November, growing 0.9% on a year-over-year basis following a 6.7% decline in October. This increase, the first since October 2018, was attributable to sharply lower prices in November 2018, when global oil prices fell amid a supply glut caused by reactions to emerging international political uncertainties. On a month-over-month basis, gasoline prices fell 2.0%, as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries enacted further cuts to oil production amid slowing global demand.
Chart 2
Energy prices rise year over year for the first time since April
The purchase of passenger vehicles index grew 2.9% on a year-over-year basis in November. The price movement was largely attributable to the greater availability of higher-priced 2020 model-year vehicles compared with October.
Consumers pay more for meat compared with 2018
Meat prices rose 5.2% year over year in November, marking five months of increases at or above 4.0%. Consumers paid 6.2% more for fresh or frozen beef, following disruptions to North American supply chains and strong international demand for Canadian beef during the first 10 months of 2019.
Following the end of foreign export restrictions on Canadian pork, consumers paid more on a year-over-year basis for ham and bacon (+9.1%) and fresh or frozen pork (+0.7%) in November compared with October. Price increases for pork products were concentrated in the Atlantic region.
Regional highlights
In every province except British Columbia, prices rose more in November on a year-over-year basis compared with the previous month. Higher year-over-year gasoline prices were the largest contributor to the acceleration in the other nine provinces. British Columbia was the only province where gasoline prices decelerated in November, attributable to a surplus of fuel in the Pacific Northwest.
Chart 3
The Consumer Price Index rises faster in November than in October in nine provinces
Higher electricity prices in Ontario
The price of electricity in Ontario rose 2.6% on a month-over-month basis in November. The movement is attributable to an increase in the time-of-use pricing rates, which was partially offset by higher subsidies for consumers.
Consumers pay more for cigarettes and hotel rooms in Alberta
The price of cigarettes rose 5.0% on a month-over-month basis in Alberta following a provincial tax increase on cigarettes, which was implemented at the end of October.
The traveller accommodation index continued to trend downward in November, falling 4.2% year over year. After a period of strong international tourism growth from 2014 to 2017, prices for traveller accommodation have declined year over year for all but one month since January 2018. Alberta was the sole province where prices for traveller accommodation rose on a month-over-month basis in November (+5.6%), largely attributable to higher demand related to the 107th annual Grey Cup, which was hosted in Calgary.
Chart 4
Traveller accommodation prices decline, except in Alberta
Note to readers
Air transportation index
With the release of the November 2019 Consumer Price Index (CPI), the final phase of a series of enhancements to the methods and processes to compile the air transportation index has been completed.
After better aligning the air transportation index with consumer spending patterns in March 2018 by converting to Internet price collection, increasing the number of origin-destination city pairs and introducing advance pricing, further enhancements to the air transportation index have been implemented with the November 2019 CPI:
- Introduction of automatic daily price collection using application programming interfaces;
- Additional origin/destination city pairs;
- Extension of the airline sample to include all airlines serving the Canadian market.
These changes constitute important enhancements in maintaining the quality and relevance of the air transportation index, which represents 1.49% of the 2017 CPI basket and is part of the transportation major component.
A document outlining the details of these changes will be published in the Prices Analytical Series (62F0014M) on January 22, 2020.
Real-time data tables
Real-time data table 18-10-0259-01 will be updated on December 23, 2019.
Next release
The Consumer Price Index for December 2019 will be released on January 22, 2020.
Products
The Consumer Price Index Data Visualization Tool is available on the Statistics Canada website.
More information about 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.
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; STATCAN.infostats-infostats.STATCAN@canada.ca) or Media Relations (613-951-4636; STATCAN.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.STATCAN@canada.ca).
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