There is a drumbeat of grim inflation statistics.
A man named Joe O'Connor.
The 5 minute read was published on August 5, 2022.
Andrew Barclay is an economist with Statistics Canada's Consumer Price Division.
The photo was taken by Statistics Canada.
A cashier at a west end grocery store looked at a customer's bill. She was looking for proof that the price of an item had gone up so she could not purchase it again.
She stated that it costs $4.99 for four pieces of corn. That is amazing.
Canada, in a historic, inflationary moment, the likes of which consumers, at least those who were old enough to be spending their hard-earned dollars on groceries, bucks, cars, hotels, rent, booze and more, have not experienced since January 1983, are now available.
Consumer inflation went up by 8.1 per cent in June after going up by 7.7 per cent in May and 6.8 per cent in April. It has been ugly on the consumer frontier for a long time.
There is a drumbeat of grim inflation statistics that doesn't just show up out of thin air. There are actual humans behind this monthly horror show, who collect, fret over, analyze, aggregate, verify, scrutinize, calculate, quality assure and closely guard the Consumer Price Index, the country's primary measure of inflation. The third week of each month is when the inflation numbers are released by Statistics Canada.
We are wonks, we are nerds, and we really love this stuff,
Andrew Barclay, an economist with the CPD
Andrew Barclay, an economist with the CPD, said that they are nerds and wonks. He wasn't alive in 1983 and he doesn't like the price of things nowadays. The inflation calculator gets hit in the wallet by the work they do when they leave the office, just like any other Canadian consumer would.
Elizabeth Abraham is the division chief.
The chief has put off buying a new car and postponing home repairs because of the high cost of materials. Chris Li, an assistant director with the CPD, is now walking and biking to more activities, and looking for deals at the grocery store, because she doesn't want to indulge in a weakness for luxury cheeses.
Consumer inflation was 8.1 per cent in June, up from 7.4 per cent in the same month a year ago.
The photo was taken by Postmedia.
The team can find beauty in the numbers, painful as they are, and the stories they tell, such as how a war in Ukraine leads to higher prices at the pump.
It has always been an interesting time and it is a very interesting time right now. He is definitely not the only nerd who feels this way.
The three colleagues were initially confused by the Financial Post's request to write a profile of the individual, and it turned out there isn't just one responsible for generating the monthly number.
We don't see ourselves as individuals We think we are behind the number.
Joe Blow, a Statistics Canada contract worker, would go to the grocery store with a scanning device and walk the aisles to get the number. The number crunchers can get weekly data from the grocery store. The prices of food are collected using store websites or flyers.
The CPI might be a bunch of numbers, but it is also constantly evolving to reflect the times, and consumer tastes
Collection teams that used to head out into the field now occupy desks and use web-scraping software to pull prices from retailer and service-provider sites for just about anything and everything one could think of a Canadian consumer buying.
The consumer price index is constantly evolving to reflect the times and tastes of consumers. Dinosaurs, like that old DVD player, get dropped while weed is in. There are several new additions to the index. The apples you buy, which may have increased in price by 10 per cent, aren't given the same statistical heft in determining the final inflation number as the $2,500 a
The prices for various cannabis products are displayed. The consumer price index now includes marijuana.
The photo was taken by Kayle Nis.
The crew at the CPD have a pretty good idea of what July's inflation number will be, a number that will be finalized by August 8, eight days before the big 8:30 a.m. reveal. The number is a top secret.
Abraham said that their families had been trained not to ask questions.
There will be no sweet, inflation-related whispers between spouses over a glass of wine. The governor of the Bank of Canada doesn't get tipped off before release day, even though he was responsible for raising interest rates.
The morning of the release, the team has a lot of butterflies. Humans have a tendency to have a hint of self-doubt when the stakes are high. There are no do-overs, no begging off sick, and no asking the boss for an extension, no matter how bad the final inflation number is.
Abraham said that he uses a joke that says "We get one chance to get it right."
The cashier at the west end Toronto grocery store was so upset over the price of corn that he sprayed the register with a cleaning solution and wiped it clean.
She said next.
Oconnor writes on email and on social media.
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