The Weekly Review, August 17 to 21, 2026

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 3.0% year over year in July, following a 2.8% gain in June. Year over year, prices for travel tours rose at a faster pace in July (+15.2%) compared with June (+6.8%). Contributing to higher prices were more expensive hotels and flights to US destination cities, coinciding with the hosting of World Cup matches. Meanwhile, prices for food purchased from stores grew at a slower pace in July (+3.1%) compared with June (+3.9%) on a year-over-year basis. Despite the slowdown, grocery price inflation continued to outpace the all-items CPI.

Source: Consumer Price Index, July 2026

Prices of products manufactured in Canada, as measured by the Industrial Product Price Index, increased 0.6% month over month in July and gained 12.4% year over year. Meanwhile, prices of raw materials purchased by manufacturers operating in Canada, as measured by the Raw Materials Price Index, decreased 2.2% month over month and increased 18.1% year over year. In July, the majority of product groups increased on a year-over-year basis. The top contributors were energy and petroleum products (+42.0%), driven by higher prices for diesel fuel (+50.3%) and finished motor gasoline (+44.7%).

Source: Industrial product and raw materials price indexes, July 2026

Retail sales increased 0.6% to $74.3 billion in June. Sales were up in seven of nine subsectors, led by increases at general merchandise retailers. Core retail sales rose 1.2% in June, posting their second consecutive monthly gain. The increase was led by higher sales at general merchandise retailers (+2.7%), up for a second consecutive month. The sole decrease in core retail sales in June came from food and beverage retailers (-0.4%).

Source: Retail trade, June 2026

Foreign investors acquired $40.8 billion of Canadian securities in June, ending the second quarter with an unprecedented $100.6 billion investment, mainly acquisitions of federal government debt securities and private corporate bonds. Meanwhile, Canadian investors acquired $35.4 billion of foreign securities, led by purchases of US shares and US corporate bonds. As a result, international transactions in securities generated a net inflow of funds of $5.4 billion into the Canadian economy in June, for a total of $55.1 billion in the second quarter.

Source: Canada's international transactions in securities, June 2026

Environmental exposures such as air pollution, extreme heat and cold, and limited green space are known to affect health. When people move residences, their risk of exposure changes. The Residential Mobility Exposome File offers a tool to quantify environmental burdens or improvements while considering how mobility shapes lifetime exposures. It can be used to support future research in equity, and environment-focused policy.

Source: Health Reports, August 2026

In 2025, over four in five 15- to 24-year-olds living in urban centres faced treks of 500 metres or less to get to a transit stop. For youth and young adults living in rural areas, however, just over 1 in 10 were within 500 metres of a transit stop. Rural youth in British Columbia were among the most likely to live within 500 metres of a transit stop, with a higher-than-average share of one in five 15- to 24-year-olds. Proximity to transit for urban youth in British Columbia aged 15 to 19 years (80%) and 20 to 24 years (84%) essentially mirrored the national average.

Source: Back to school, by transit