Energy prices increase at a faster pace
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 3.1% year over year in September, following a 3.0% increase in August. The acceleration was led by higher prices for gasoline in September (+27.8%) compared with August (+22.8%). Crude oil prices increased in September, reaching their highest level since May, resulting in higher prices for gasoline and fuel oil. Excluding gasoline, the CPI rose 2.2%, after increasing 2.4% in August.
Core retail sales rise in August
Retail sales increased 1.2% to $74.6 billion in August. Sales were up in all nine subsectors, led by increases at motor vehicle and parts dealers. Meanwhile, core retail sales rose 1.1% in August, following a decrease of 0.7% in July. The increase in August was led by higher sales at the food and beverage retailers subsector (+1.1%), which posted its first increase in three months.
Source: Retail trade, August 2026
About one in six Canadian businesses were impacted by cyber security incidents in 2025
In 2025, about one in six (16%) Canadian businesses were impacted by cyber security incidents, unchanged from 2023, but five percentage points lower than 2019 (21%). Scams and fraud were identified as a method of attack for over half (55%) of the businesses impacted by cyber security incidents in 2025. Most (86%) businesses in Canada reported using some sort of cyber security prevention measure.
Beyond meeting the physical activity recommendation
Public health recommendations, such as the one for adults to accumulate at least 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity per week, are useful for tracking population-level trends. However, looking at the distribution of activity among adults who do not meet the recommendation provides additional information about how far or how close various groups within the population are to meeting the target. For example, from 2022 to 2024, 43% of 18-to-39-year-old females were meeting the recommendation, while 34% only needed an extra 5 to 10 minutes per day to meet the target and 23% needed more than that to reach the target.
Source: Health Reports, October 2026
Inflation, recruiting skilled employees, input costs are among top challenges for small businesses
When asked in the third quarter of 2026 about their most challenging obstacle over the next three months, answers differed by employee count. For example, businesses with 5 to 19 (14.3%) were more than three times as likely as those with 1 to 4 employees (4.4%) to cite recruiting skilled employees as their most challenging obstacle. Furthermore, over one-quarter (27.8%) of businesses with 1 to 4 employees said that US tariffs on imports of their goods would have either a major or minor negative impact in the next 12 months, while those with 20 to 99 employees (38.7%) were more likely to report the same anticipated impacts. Most small businesses said their future outlook over the next 12 months was either very optimistic (ranging from 20.2% to 24.7%) or somewhat optimistic (ranging from 48.4% to 53.7%).
Contact information
For more information, contact the Statistical Information Service (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; infostats@statcan.gc.ca) or Media Relations (statcan.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.statcan@statcan.gc.ca).