P.E.I. food prices up over last year, bucking lower-costs trend

The cost of food on P.E.I. in July was up 4.1 per cent over the same month last year, the largest increase of any province in Canada.

StatsCan released the consumer price index for July on Wednesday. P.E.I. saw spikes in the cost of fresh fruit at 5.8 per cent, eggs at 8.2 per cent, meat at 7.7 per cent and dairy at 5.3 per cent.

Both meat and dairy were the sharpest increases in the country, but not all food prices wereup. The cost of vegetables fell3.8 per cent compared to a year earlier, as well as bakery items at 1.5 per cent.

Overall, the inflation news for P.E.I. was rosier. Prices on the Island were down 0.9 per cent in July 2020 compared to July 2019.

This is largely due to significant drops in gasoline at 18.9 per cent and fuel at 28.3 per cent, due to price falls in March and April as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold.

When comparing month over month, both prices are slowly recovering, with fuel up 15.5 per cent and gasoline up 5.2 per cent from June 2020.

Also noteworthy for P.E.I.'s tourism economy is the drop in the price of traveller accommodations, which are down 22 per cent over last summer.

The Consumer Price Indexwas set at 100 in 2002.In July, P.E.I.'s CPI was 138.2, 1 points higher than Canada's rate.

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