Even if the increase in grocery prices reached nearly 10% in April while wages rose by a meager 3.3%, our troubles are far from over.
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Photo Julien McEvoy
There are still a few places where you can find real low prices for food, such as discount stores that sell food near its best before date. Here, Les Escomptes St-Jean, one of the leaders in the field in Quebec.
Quebecers are clearly losing purchasing power,” summarizes David Dupuis, from the economics department at the University of Sherbrooke.
This observation is based on the most recent inflation figures published yesterday by Statistics Canada. In total, over one year, prices increased by 6.8%.
If David Dupuis expected more good news, it was not the case. Foremost among the bad: food inflation is accelerating.
“The concern is that the weight of food in the average budget is 16%, which is a lot,” he says.
In April, grocery store prices rose 9.7%, according to Statistics Canada, compared to 8.7% in March and 7.4% in February.
It is above all the fifth month in a row that the price of food has increased by more than 5%. From 2010 to 2020, there were only five months in total at more than 5%.
Even as since December, the price of certain vegetables has skyrocketed, notably that of carrots (22%), broccoli (19%), sweet potatoes (18%), iceberg lettuce (17%), romaine lettuce (16%) and cabbage (12%).
Also since December 2021, pasta and flour have also jumped 13%.
“If you didn’t know that you now earn less raw money, go to the grocery store,” illustrates Sylvain Charlebois, from Dalhousie University’s Agrifood Analytical Sciences Laboratory.
The food expert uses a sports metaphor.
“The worst thing is that we are just at the end of the first period. We still have a long time,” he said.
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Groceries more expensive than ever
Excluding fluctuations in the cost of gas, the inflation rate stood at 5.8% in April, compared to 5.5% in March. “This is the largest increase in the special aggregate of the all-items CPI excluding gasoline since its introduction in 1999,” said Statistics Canada, confirming that housing and food prices which soar play a major role in inflationary pressures.
It must be said that according to Statistics Canada data, the grocery bill was 9.7% higher in April than 12 months earlier.
“The increase, which exceeds 5% for a fifth consecutive month, is the largest since September 1981. For comparison purposes, from 2010 to 2020 there have been five months of increases of 5% or more in the prices of store-bought food,” the federal organization said.
No food category escapes inflation, but those containing wheat are particularly affected due to the war in Ukraine. Thus, bread (+12.2%), pasta (+19.6%) and cereal products (+13.9%) are particularly affected, although fruit (+10%), vegetables ( +8.2%) and meat (+10.1%) follow not far behind.
In addition, rental prices continued to grow, up 4.5% over 12 months in Canada and 4.3% in Quebec.
For their part, gasoline prices did not influence the rise in the Consumer Price Index as much in April as in March, the amount paid at the pump having fallen slightly in April (-0.7%). , after rising 11.8% in March.
“Year over year, consumers paid 36.3% more for gasoline in April, compared to 39.8% in March,” said Statistics Canada.
Little control over the causes
This is also what one of the Desjardins Group economists thinks.
“It will be like this for months to come,” according to Benoît Durocher.
Quebec and Canada have very little, if any, control over the factors that drive prices up.
“The price of energy, the supply chain issues, the scarcity of fertilizers which drives up the price of food, these are all international factors,” he recalls.
Moreover, adds the economist, inflation is worse in the United States than here. It was 8.3% in April.
Still for at least a year
One of the good news contained in the 6.8% increase, according to David Dupuis, is that the rise in gas prices “calmed down” in April.
“Except that with what we see at the pump in May, we will be picked up for May inflation,” he says in the same breath.
In its most optimistic scenario, “which will not happen, due to the invasion of Ukraine”, inflation would return to below 3% next January.
“The real optimistic scenario is a return to 3% or less in April 2023,” he believes.
Until then, low-income households will continue to “slap the slap”.
The price of food is skyrocketing
- Store-bought foods: +9.7%
- Pasta : + 19.6%
- Cup of coffee : + 13.7%
- Bread : + 12.2%
- Meat : + 10.1%
- Fresh fruits : + 10%
- Fresh vegetables : + 8.2%
- Rice : +7.4%
Source: Statistics Canada, percentage increase between April 2021 and April 2022
Reference-www.journaldemontreal.com