While prices for food purchased from stores continue to increase, the index grew at a slower pace year over year in April than in March, reports Statistics Canada.
In March the food inflation rate was 2.9 per cent and in April 1.4 per cent.
Meat contributed the most to slower price growth, largely due to a base-year effect in prices for fresh or frozen beef, which were up by 4.4 per cent,
Other contributors to the slowdown in grocery prices were bakery and cereal products, up by two-tenths of a per cent, fruit, fruit preparations and nuts , up by eight-tenths of a per cent.
Since April 2021, food prices at supermarkets increased by 21.4 per cent.
I'm wondering what May will look like, given a whopping increase in fluid milk prices at the major supermarket chains.
Price growth for food purchased from restaurants also eased on a yearly basis, rising by 4.3 per cent in April 2024 following a 5.1 per cent increase in March.
Food is the second-largest major Consumer Price Index (CPI) component. Based on 2022 expenditures, Canadians spent 16.65 per cent of their household budget to food purchases, with food purchased from stores accounting for 11.04 per cent of household budgets.
Grocery prices are mostly captured using scanner data, also known as point-of-sale data, received directly from grocery retailers.
Scanner data are the highest quality price data available and the gold standard for price collection. They track actual prices paid by Canadians at the till, including sales, promotions and quantity details.
The overall inflation rate in April was 2.7 per cent, down from 3.9 in March. Gasoline prices rose by eight per cent.