Consumer Price Index, January 2020
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Released: 2020-02-19
January 2020
2.4% 
(12-month change)
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 2.4% on a year-over-year basis in January, up from a 2.2% gain in December. Excluding gasoline, the CPI rose 2.0% in January.
On a seasonally adjusted monthly basis, the CPI rose 0.1% in January, following a 0.4% increase in December.
Chart 1
The 12-month change in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and CPI excluding gasoline
Two ways of exploring the Consumer Price Index (CPI)
Visit the Consumer Price Index Portal to find all CPI data, publications, interactive tools, and announcements highlighting new products and upcoming changes to the CPI in one convenient location.
Check out the Consumer Price Index Data Visualization Tool to access current and historical CPI data in a customizable, visual format.
Highlights
Gasoline prices impacted by international events
Gasoline prices increased by 11.2% year over year compared with January 2019, when oil prices were low as a result of a global supply glut. Gasoline prices rose with oil prices at the beginning of January 2020, due to concerns over global oil supplies in response to international political events. Later in the month, global oil prices fell following the novel coronavirus outbreak, which caused uncertainty about demand for oil.
Chart 2
Gasoline prices rise faster year over year
Year-over-year fresh vegetable price growth increases
Prices for fresh vegetables rose at a faster pace year over year in January (+5.0%) compared with December (+1.5%), largely attributable to strong year-over-year price growth of tomatoes (+10.8%) and other fresh vegetables (+5.0%). The higher prices stem from inclement weather in growing regions in the United States and Mexico.
Chart 3
Fresh vegetable prices grow at a faster pace
Purchase of passenger vehicles index increases with the release of new models
The purchase of passenger vehicles index increased 2.3% year over year in January, up from 1.4% in December. The gain reflected the higher availability of new model-year vehicles compared with January 2019.
Regional highlights
On a year-over-year basis, prices rose more in January than in December in eight provinces.
Chart 4
The Consumer Price Index rises at a faster pace in eight provinces
Drivers pay more in Alberta and Prince Edward Island
Consumers in Alberta paid 6.6% more for gasoline in January on a year-over-year basis, following a 0.9% increase in December. Carbon pricing was reintroduced in Alberta on January 1, 2020.
Passenger vehicle insurance premiums increased 17.8% on a year-over-year basis in Alberta. A significant share of private passenger vehicle insurers in this province submitted applications to increase rates following the removal of a rate cap, which resulted in Alberta's largest month-over-month increase in passenger vehicle insurance premiums (+7.6%) since November 2002.
Consumers in Alberta paid 14.4% more for other passenger vehicle operating expenses on a year-over-year basis in January 2020. This was due, in part, to increases in service fees, including fees for drivers' licences and passenger vehicle registration, introduced in the 2019-2020 provincial budget.
Consumers paid more for passenger vehicle operating expenses in Prince Edward Island following the reinstatement of driver's licence fees and a 25.0% increase in passenger vehicle registration fees in January. These fees were temporarily eliminated or reduced in January 2019 as a result of a provincial initiative to redistribute carbon levy proceeds to residents of the province.
Tobacco prices rise in British Columbia
Consumers in British Columbia paid 4.5% more for cigarettes in January compared with December, primarily due to a provincial tobacco tax increase which took effect on January 1, 2020. This is the largest month-over-month tobacco price increase in British Columbia since April 2018, the last time the province raised taxes on tobacco.
Note to readers
Clothing and footwear component
The release of the January 2020 Consumer Price Index (CPI) (published on February 19, 2020) marks the introduction of web scraped data and sample enhancements into the sub-indexes of the clothing and footwear component.
Beginning with the January 2020 CPI, for select retailers, some prices for this component are now collected online instead of in-store.
Detailed documentation describing the new data source is available in the article "The Integration of Web-Scraped Data into the Clothing and Footwear Component of the Consumer Price Index" which is published as part of the Prices Analytical Series (62F0014M).
Cellular services index
The cellular services price index is now available upon request. For more information, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; STATCAN.infostats-infostats.STATCAN@canada.ca).
Real-time data tables
Real-time data table 18-10-0259-01 will be updated on March 2.
Next release
The Consumer Price Index for February will be released on March 18.
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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