Statistics Canada: Inflation Has an Effect on Necessary Spending
At the end of 2022, 35% of the population said they lived in a household that was experiencing difficulties.
It is the prices of everyday goods and services that have increased the most in 2022. The increase was 8.9% for food. (File photo)
The sharp increase in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) in Canada in 2022 did have a significant impact on the capacity of Canadians to cover their expenses qualified as necessary, according to what Statistics Canada confirms in data published on Tuesday.
The federal agency reports that in the summer of 2021, 48% of the population lived in a household that found it easy or very easy to meet necessary expenses. By the end of last year, that figure had plummeted to less than a third, or 29%.
Statistics Canada finds that this increase in the degree of financial hardship is consistent with results from the Labor Force Survey which show that more than a third of the population was experiencing financial hardship in October 2022, compared to a fifth in October 2020.
In 2022, the CPI increased by 6.8%, which was the highest increase since 1982, which had been 10, 9%. Prices for everyday goods and services rose the most, including transportation by 10.6%, food by 8.9% and housing by 6.9%.
Data from the Canadian Social Survey (CSS) show that the proportion of people aged 15 and over living in a household having difficulty meeting their necessary expenses has shown an upward trend, rising from 19% in summer 2021 to 24% last summer. At the end of 2022, 35% of the population lived in such a household.
Last fall, adults aged 25 to 54 were most likely to live in a household that found it very difficult or difficult to meet their financial needs, ahead of people aged 15 and over looking for work, renters, recent immigrants and people living with children.
The data from the federal agency also illustrates that 39% of the racialized population said that their household had difficulty meeting their financial needs, in particular black-skinned Canadians and those of South Asian descent.
On the other hand, at 44%, Indigenous people were more likely to experience financial hardship than the non-Indigenous population , at 35%.
