Statistics Canada’s September CPI data showed prices for food purchased from stores rose 1.7% year over year, while the all-items CPI rose 3.1%, offering limited relief to households still confronting affordability challenges.
The annual increase in prices for food purchased from stores eased to 1.7% from 2.8% in August, while higher gasoline prices lifted the all-items CPI, Statistics Canada reported. Store-bought food price growth eased while the all-items CPI accelerated.
The year-over-year comparison measures September against the same month a year earlier, rather than changes between August and September. A slower annual increase therefore does not mean prices returned to earlier levels. Loblaw said food prices remained significantly higher than five years ago, leaving affordability an ongoing issue for Canadians.
Statistics Canada released its September Consumer Price Index (CPI) data last week. Loblaw published its latest food inflation report Monday, Oct. 26, using the national figures as context for its account of pressures affecting food costs.
The report names tariff changes, commodity-market swings and freight bills as pressure points for food businesses. Loblaw said suppliers were seeking larger cost increases.
Loblaw said it had challenged proposals it considered unjustified. The company said the supplier cost proposals it had successfully contested this year amounted to hundreds of millions of dollars.
The report describes competing positions over proposed costs: suppliers were seeking larger increases, while Loblaw said it had pushed back. Canadian households, meanwhile, continued to face affordability challenges, the company said.
Fresh strawberries are the report's product example. Loblaw examines how seasonal conditions, weather and transportation can affect the price as fruit moves from farms to stores.
