The Weekly Review, December 15 to 19, 2025

December 19, 2025, 2:00 p.m. (EST)

Grocery price inflation highest since the end of 2023

The Consumer Price Index rose 2.2% on a year-over-year basis in November 2025, matching the increase in October. Prices for food purchased from stores rose 4.7% year over year in November after increasing 3.4% in October. The increase in November was the largest since December 2023 (+4.7%). In November 2025, prices for fresh or frozen beef (+17.7%) and coffee (+27.8%) continued to be significant contributors to overall grocery inflation on an annual basis.

Source: Consumer Price Index, November 2025

First Canadian divestment in foreign securities since January 2025

Foreign investors added $46.6 billion of Canadian securities to their holdings in October, the highest investment since March 2022. Meanwhile, Canadian investors reduced their holdings of foreign securities by $11.6 billion in October 2025. This was the first divestment since January 2025 and the highest since January 2023.

Source: Canada's international transactions in securities, October 2025

New zero-emission vehicle registrations fall by 40% compared with the same period the previous year

In the third quarter of 2025, Canadians registered a total of 484,415 new motor vehicles, up 0.2% from the same quarter of 2024 and a decrease of 10.6% from the second quarter of 2025. In the third quarter, 45,366 new zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) were registered, making up 9.4% of all new motor vehicle registrations. New registrations for ZEVs declined by 40.1% in the third quarter of 2025 compared with the same quarter the previous year, continuing their downward trend observed earlier in 2025.

Source: New motor vehicle registrations, third quarter 2025

Canada's manufacturing sector declines after three consecutive years of growth

In 2024, total revenue in the Canadian manufacturing sector decreased by 0.9% to $931.2 billion. Revenue from manufactured goods, which represented 93.9% of total revenue, fell by 1.1% to $874.6 billion. Transportation equipment manufacturing ($8.0 billion) recorded the largest decrease among subsectors, while the food manufacturing subsector (+$3.5 billion) recorded another year of strong growth. Food manufacturing has been the largest manufacturing subsector in terms of revenue since 2020. In 2024, it accounted for 18.4% of revenue from goods produced for all manufacturing subsectors.

Source: Annual Survey of Manufacturing Industries, 2024

Mood disorders among older Canadians

From 2015 to 2023, on average, 7.0% of older Canadians reported having a diagnosis of a mood disorder, and females (8.3%) were more likely than males (5.5%) to have done so. Older Canadians living in lower income households were more likely to report having a diagnosis of a mood disorder compared with those living in households with the highest income. For example, individuals in the lowest income households had 1.7 times higher odds of having a mood disorder than those in the highest income households.

Source: Health Reports, December 2025

Virtual health care in Canada

In 2022, almost 1 in 10 (9.2%) Canadians aged 15 and older reported unmet health care needs, up from 7.9% in 2021. From 2022 to 2023, the proportion of Canadians with a regular health care provider fell in all age groups. In 2023, more than half (57.5%) of health care users had in-person appointments only in the previous 12 months, 5.3% had virtual appointments only, and over one-third (37.2%) had both types. Access continues to be a challenge for many Canadians, so if virtual care can play even a small role, it’s always welcomed.

Source: Virtual health care in a post-pandemic Canada: A checkup

Contact information

For more information, contact the Statistical Information Service (toll-free 1-800-263-1136514-283-8300infostats@statcan.gc.ca) or Media Relations (statcan.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.statcan@statcan.gc.ca).