Now more than ever, Statscan needs to re-examine how it measures inflation
… A new paper from MEI director of research Valentin Petkantchin and senior economist Nathalie Elgrably-Lévy argues that the year-over-year change in the consumer price index, or CPI – the figure we commonly call the inflation rate, which sat at 7.6 per cent in July – has routinely understated the pace of consumer inflation this year.
They calculated that based on a more timely “speedometer” for prices, the annualized inflation pace exceeded 10 per cent from March through June, topping out at a massive 12.5 per cent in May – nearly five percentage points higher than the official inflation rate reported by Statistics Canada that month.
Shame on me for suggesting a politicized public service would finagle the numbers to help Trudeau!
