Statistics Canadian has shaken up products on its Consumer Price Index – the cost of pizza delivery and gaming consoles are in, while soda crackers and plastic forks are out..Blacklock’s Reporter says it’s the first time in four years things on the index have been switched..“Statistics Canada’s priority is to ensure the Price Index remains a high-quality measure of inflation and reflects the changing consumption patterns of Canadians,” the agency wrote in its Analysis Of The 2021 Consumer Price Index Basket Update..Changes reflect “current spending patterns,” it said..The Price Index is based on actual retail charges in all 10 provinces, adjusted monthly based on costs of a basket of nearly 200 items from baby food to coffee, airfares, pet food, refrigerators, shoes, tenants’ insurance, wristwatches and other goods..StatsCan on Wednesday added to its calculations the cost of gaming consoles, digital magazine subscriptions, postage and shipping fees and local delivery charges “which includes both restaurant and grocery delivery fees.”.Basket items to be downgraded included soda crackers, pickled vegetables, tin foil, cookies and “plastic supplies.”.“Expenditure share is a relative measure,” wrote analysts..The cost of housing including rents and mortgages that now accounts for 30% of the inflation calculator. Food comprises 16%, gasoline is 3%..“While interest rates fell at the onset of the pandemic and remained at record low levels for the rest of the year, consumers directed a greater share of their expenditures to mortgage interest due to rising home prices and the increased number of new mortgages,” said the report..The changes follow an April 21 hearing of the Senate banking committee that saw legislators complain the official inflation rate did not appear to reflect mounting mortgage costs..“The growth in housing prices certainly in my part of the world in Nova Scotia has been absolutely remarkable,” said Sen. Colin Deacon of Halifax..“The issue of the composition of the basket of the Consumer Price Index is a good one, and one we have been paying very close attention to throughout the pandemic,” testified Greg Peterson, assistant chief statistician..Peterson said the revisions would “better reflect changes” in the true cost of living in Canada..The inflation calculator dates from a 1914 Cost Of Living Index to track wartime inflation that reached a record 38%..“New products and services are introduced to the market and existing ones may be modified or become obsolete,” StatsCan wrote in a 2019 analysis..TV sets and frozen foods were added in 1957. The 2001 version was the first to include the cost of Internet service. Smartphones were added in 2009, and cannabis in 2019..Items deleted from the basket over the years included lard and coal, dropped in 1967. Camera film rolls were deleted in 2013. Video rentals were removed in 2015..Dave Naylor is the News Editor of the Western Standard.,dnaylor@westernstandardonline.com,.Twitter.com/nobby7694
Statistics Canadian has shaken up products on its Consumer Price Index – the cost of pizza delivery and gaming consoles are in, while soda crackers and plastic forks are out..Blacklock’s Reporter says it’s the first time in four years things on the index have been switched..“Statistics Canada’s priority is to ensure the Price Index remains a high-quality measure of inflation and reflects the changing consumption patterns of Canadians,” the agency wrote in its Analysis Of The 2021 Consumer Price Index Basket Update..Changes reflect “current spending patterns,” it said..The Price Index is based on actual retail charges in all 10 provinces, adjusted monthly based on costs of a basket of nearly 200 items from baby food to coffee, airfares, pet food, refrigerators, shoes, tenants’ insurance, wristwatches and other goods..StatsCan on Wednesday added to its calculations the cost of gaming consoles, digital magazine subscriptions, postage and shipping fees and local delivery charges “which includes both restaurant and grocery delivery fees.”.Basket items to be downgraded included soda crackers, pickled vegetables, tin foil, cookies and “plastic supplies.”.“Expenditure share is a relative measure,” wrote analysts..The cost of housing including rents and mortgages that now accounts for 30% of the inflation calculator. Food comprises 16%, gasoline is 3%..“While interest rates fell at the onset of the pandemic and remained at record low levels for the rest of the year, consumers directed a greater share of their expenditures to mortgage interest due to rising home prices and the increased number of new mortgages,” said the report..The changes follow an April 21 hearing of the Senate banking committee that saw legislators complain the official inflation rate did not appear to reflect mounting mortgage costs..“The growth in housing prices certainly in my part of the world in Nova Scotia has been absolutely remarkable,” said Sen. Colin Deacon of Halifax..“The issue of the composition of the basket of the Consumer Price Index is a good one, and one we have been paying very close attention to throughout the pandemic,” testified Greg Peterson, assistant chief statistician..Peterson said the revisions would “better reflect changes” in the true cost of living in Canada..The inflation calculator dates from a 1914 Cost Of Living Index to track wartime inflation that reached a record 38%..“New products and services are introduced to the market and existing ones may be modified or become obsolete,” StatsCan wrote in a 2019 analysis..TV sets and frozen foods were added in 1957. The 2001 version was the first to include the cost of Internet service. Smartphones were added in 2009, and cannabis in 2019..Items deleted from the basket over the years included lard and coal, dropped in 1967. Camera film rolls were deleted in 2013. Video rentals were removed in 2015..Dave Naylor is the News Editor of the Western Standard.,dnaylor@westernstandardonline.com,.Twitter.com/nobby7694
