Canadian Core CPI Beats Expectations In August

Canadian Core CPI beat expectations for the month of August, Statistics Canada announced today.

Seasonally adjusted, the Core index increased 0.3% MoM in August, beating expectations of a 0.1% increase. This is also up from the 0.1% seen in July.

Today’s number hauls the yearly Core CPI up to 1.7%, better than the 1.6% expected and the 1.5% seen over the last four 12 month periods.

The headline Consumer Price Index, or raw number, came in slightly worse than expected on a MoM basis. A figure of -0.2% was reported in comparison to -0.1% expected. Overall, this brings the YoY number to 3.5%, up from 3.4% in July.

The Bank of Canada’s Core CPI excludes fruit, fruit preparations and nuts, vegetables and vegetable preparations, mortgage interest costs, natural gas, fuel oil and other fuels, gasoline, inner-city transportation and tobacco products and smokers’ supplies. This would account for the difference between headline and Core CPI.

Among the components weighing on the all-items CPI were transportation down 2.1% MoM and energy which registered -3.0% MoM. However, on a yearly basis transportation and energy are still up 5.8% and 20.2% respectively.

The Canadian Dollar’s reaction to the data was fairly tame, managing an intra-day low of 1.0303 in the USDCAD. However, traders are still very much preoccupied by the US Fed Wall Street bailout.