I built an interactive tool to track Canadian inflation data, measuring 46 items (food, housing, transportation, etc.) across the time period of 1978 to 2024: [https://themeasureofaplan.com/canadian-inflation/](https://themeasureofaplan.com/canadian-inflation/)
This is an interactive Canadian inflation tracker, showing price changes for various items (housing, food, transportation, etc.) from 1978 to 2024 — all based on data from Statistics Canada.
We can use this tool to answer questions like:
* How much higher are today’s prices versus pre-pandemic prices?
* What has the average inflation rate been over the last 1 / 5 / 10 years?
* Which specific price items — housing, food, transportation, etc. — have had the highest price inflation?
* How much would Canadian prices need to drop by to get back to “normal”?
From what I typically see in the media, inflation storylines are too focused on short-term price comparisons (changes versus the previous month or previous year). This Canadian inflation tracker seeks to show the cumulative change in prices over longer time periods — for example, comparing today’s prices for housing and food versus prices before the COVID-19 pandemic.
This tool helps us to see that the “war on inflation” isn’t won simply due to the latest monthly data being +2% versus the previous year. Periods of high inflation (such as the annual inflation rates of +5% to 10% that we saw during the pandemic) require a long period of very low inflation (or even deflation) to balance out to a normalized level of prices.
I think it would be nice if you added really fine, gray lines with the same slope as the 2% line at various offsets so you could see the difference in slope at various points.
So prices were actually holding steady (against normal 2% target) until ~2021, when they start rising like bonkers.
Canadian population growth / immigration starting rising significantly around that time as well…
Sure, housing has gotten real expensive, but on the plus side, it’s just as cheap to sleep in the buses and subways as it was 10 years ago, if it comes to that.
Good job, it’s clear and instructive
A 30% increase across 10 years is effectively an annualized inflation of 2.6%, which is a much more reasonable figure especially when you factor in the structural break in pricing post-COVID. Also, the inflation control range within the mandate for the Bank of Canada targets the 1-3% range broadly, which this fell squarely within until COVID.
EDIT: Graph is compounded.
I like the graph, but I am not sure if it’s misleading. From what I remember, and I could be wrong here, the Canadian central bank have an inflation target, rather than a price target. So, let’s say that there’s 10% inflation in a period. From what I remember, the Canadian central bank would then target 2% inflation from that point, rather than target 0% inflation the next 4 years. That means that the trend line you have will always be outdated, no matter how prices changes, because there’s always a new 2% target
My immediate thought here was “how the hell did every major category inflate faster than the average?” – Well, I’m taking for granted that public transit doesn’t eat up most of the average canadian household budget.
[Yep, there’s a fair few categories that grew slower than the average – of course](https://imgur.com/lxmmjGz) – but no one ever talks about those. I think that’s a conversation worth having though. In particular the conversation around which parts of the budget affect the haves vs. the have-nots. Childcare and healthcare affect everyone at the same dollar value (I’m assuming no low-income subsidies here), so if those get more expensive it’s a crisis for the have-nots. Shelter includes big luxury houses, and clothes includes luxury clothing. Those are sectors where at least parts of it can get wildly expensive without harming overall societal peace. And behold: The inflation on owned accomodation has been worse than that on rented; I’d say that’s better than the other way around. But sometimes it also works the opposite way.
Biden did that. He made Canadian (and Global) prices rise.
This is badly misrepresenting the 2% inflation target.
Cpi is measured relative to a previous year, not cumulatively for a reason. If inflation is higher than the target you don’t try and deflate prices, and that would be very hard to do, because that would mean employees need to get paid nominally less when inflation is rising.
The target is the slope of the line, not the cumulative effect of the line.
For what you are plotting, you need to look at the ‘real price’ (economic term) not the nominal price (what you are actually plotting) for it to show anything useful.
This has been a discussion off an on over the years, when inflation was really low for a long time the question is if the inflation target should basically let cpi ‘catch up’ a bit if it started rising (imagine you had 1% inflation for 10 years but wanted 2%, does that mean you are ‘behind’? A: turns out no, absolutely not). Just as now, the goal is not to deflate the economy back to some arbitrary baseline either. The bank of canada/england/ecb/fed etc. Are trying to control the rate of change, not the absolute value. The target is >0 to prevent deflation, but the target range of 1-3% (which is the official policy for the boc between 2022 and 2026 https://www.bankofcanada.ca/core-functions/monetary-policy/monetary-policy-framework-renewal/ that was updated Dec 2021), is essentially arbitrary and only really started in the 1990s with it becoming US policy to target 2% in 2012. https://publications.gc.ca/site/archivee-archived.html?url=https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2017/banque-bank-canada/FB12-7-26-2012-eng.pdf. Has some of the history for Canada that mirrors the US. The 2% target has only been around since 1991, and that was just after the 1970s and 80s where cpi went from a big dip to 2.5% in 1970 to 13% in 74 to 10% in 1980 to 12% and down to 4-5 right before 1991.
A logarithmic graph won’t make much difference here (10 year time frame).
With longer time frames, or higher yearly growth, it may be the more appropriate graph.
11 comments
I built an interactive tool to track Canadian inflation data, measuring 46 items (food, housing, transportation, etc.) across the time period of 1978 to 2024: [https://themeasureofaplan.com/canadian-inflation/](https://themeasureofaplan.com/canadian-inflation/)
This is an interactive Canadian inflation tracker, showing price changes for various items (housing, food, transportation, etc.) from 1978 to 2024 — all based on data from Statistics Canada.
We can use this tool to answer questions like:
* How much higher are today’s prices versus pre-pandemic prices?
* What has the average inflation rate been over the last 1 / 5 / 10 years?
* Which specific price items — housing, food, transportation, etc. — have had the highest price inflation?
* How much would Canadian prices need to drop by to get back to “normal”?
From what I typically see in the media, inflation storylines are too focused on short-term price comparisons (changes versus the previous month or previous year). This Canadian inflation tracker seeks to show the cumulative change in prices over longer time periods — for example, comparing today’s prices for housing and food versus prices before the COVID-19 pandemic.
This tool helps us to see that the “war on inflation” isn’t won simply due to the latest monthly data being +2% versus the previous year. Periods of high inflation (such as the annual inflation rates of +5% to 10% that we saw during the pandemic) require a long period of very low inflation (or even deflation) to balance out to a normalized level of prices.
Data: [StatsCan monthly CPI](https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/cv.action?pid=1810000401)
Tools used: javascript / chart.js
I think it would be nice if you added really fine, gray lines with the same slope as the 2% line at various offsets so you could see the difference in slope at various points.
So prices were actually holding steady (against normal 2% target) until ~2021, when they start rising like bonkers.
Canadian population growth / immigration starting rising significantly around that time as well…
Sure, housing has gotten real expensive, but on the plus side, it’s just as cheap to sleep in the buses and subways as it was 10 years ago, if it comes to that.
Good job, it’s clear and instructive
A 30% increase across 10 years is effectively an annualized inflation of 2.6%, which is a much more reasonable figure especially when you factor in the structural break in pricing post-COVID. Also, the inflation control range within the mandate for the Bank of Canada targets the 1-3% range broadly, which this fell squarely within until COVID.
EDIT: Graph is compounded.
I like the graph, but I am not sure if it’s misleading. From what I remember, and I could be wrong here, the Canadian central bank have an inflation target, rather than a price target. So, let’s say that there’s 10% inflation in a period. From what I remember, the Canadian central bank would then target 2% inflation from that point, rather than target 0% inflation the next 4 years. That means that the trend line you have will always be outdated, no matter how prices changes, because there’s always a new 2% target
My immediate thought here was “how the hell did every major category inflate faster than the average?” – Well, I’m taking for granted that public transit doesn’t eat up most of the average canadian household budget.
[Yep, there’s a fair few categories that grew slower than the average – of course](https://imgur.com/lxmmjGz) – but no one ever talks about those. I think that’s a conversation worth having though. In particular the conversation around which parts of the budget affect the haves vs. the have-nots. Childcare and healthcare affect everyone at the same dollar value (I’m assuming no low-income subsidies here), so if those get more expensive it’s a crisis for the have-nots. Shelter includes big luxury houses, and clothes includes luxury clothing. Those are sectors where at least parts of it can get wildly expensive without harming overall societal peace. And behold: The inflation on owned accomodation has been worse than that on rented; I’d say that’s better than the other way around. But sometimes it also works the opposite way.
Biden did that. He made Canadian (and Global) prices rise.
This is badly misrepresenting the 2% inflation target.
Cpi is measured relative to a previous year, not cumulatively for a reason. If inflation is higher than the target you don’t try and deflate prices, and that would be very hard to do, because that would mean employees need to get paid nominally less when inflation is rising.
The target is the slope of the line, not the cumulative effect of the line.
For what you are plotting, you need to look at the ‘real price’ (economic term) not the nominal price (what you are actually plotting) for it to show anything useful.
This has been a discussion off an on over the years, when inflation was really low for a long time the question is if the inflation target should basically let cpi ‘catch up’ a bit if it started rising (imagine you had 1% inflation for 10 years but wanted 2%, does that mean you are ‘behind’? A: turns out no, absolutely not). Just as now, the goal is not to deflate the economy back to some arbitrary baseline either. The bank of canada/england/ecb/fed etc. Are trying to control the rate of change, not the absolute value. The target is >0 to prevent deflation, but the target range of 1-3% (which is the official policy for the boc between 2022 and 2026 https://www.bankofcanada.ca/core-functions/monetary-policy/monetary-policy-framework-renewal/ that was updated Dec 2021), is essentially arbitrary and only really started in the 1990s with it becoming US policy to target 2% in 2012. https://publications.gc.ca/site/archivee-archived.html?url=https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2017/banque-bank-canada/FB12-7-26-2012-eng.pdf. Has some of the history for Canada that mirrors the US. The 2% target has only been around since 1991, and that was just after the 1970s and 80s where cpi went from a big dip to 2.5% in 1970 to 13% in 74 to 10% in 1980 to 12% and down to 4-5 right before 1991.
A logarithmic graph won’t make much difference here (10 year time frame).
With longer time frames, or higher yearly growth, it may be the more appropriate graph.
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