René Vézina (Photo courtesy)
Hello again after the summer break!
It would have been nice to find you with a lot of good news but, for the moment, the economic landscape is still mixed, especially with regard to the cost of living.
First, a little comfort. The latest reading of inflation, by Statistics Canada, shows that price growth in grocery stores is slowing. They are unfortunately still on the rise, but over one year, from July 2022 to July 2023, the increase was 8.5%, compared to 9.1%.
We will not saber the champagne for as much, except that we can see a reversal of trend, hoping for more substantial reductions.
Similarly, travel is also starting to be less expensive, both in terms of accommodation and air transport, while bills had risen sharply at the end of the pandemic.
There too, the cycle would be reversed, while the staff shortage is fading, which had weighed heavily on the rise in costs.
On the other hand, the welcome calm at the gas pump did not last long. Since July, prices have jumped about 12%, when many people hit the road. It’s the perfect storm: demand has picked up, oil nations are limiting supply – not to mention sanctions against Russia – and then the new federal carbon tax on producers took effect on July 1 and will inevitably reach consumers. At the same time, this surge will inevitably have repercussions on the costs of manufacturing and transporting goods of all kinds.
In the less good news, we must also mention the drastic drop in housing starts, attributable in large part to the significant increase in interest rates, which are making homes ever more expensive. This contraction of the market unfortunately occurs at a time when the lack of housing is hitting the greater Montreal region in particular, one of the few to see its population grow.
All is not so gloomy, if only because we expect the Bank of Canada to moderate its enthusiasm soon and stop raising its key interest rate. If the cost of credit falls, a good part of the economy will be able to breathe easier and household finances will benefit just as much.
To be continued this fall…
2023-09-03 01:01:37
#Sun #Châteauguay #Good #bad #news #inflation #front
