Inflation weighing on minds of Saskatchewan consumers

Canada’s inflation rate keeps on soaring, reaching 5.1 per cent in January.

The rate is the highest it has been since September of 1991 and significantly above market expectations of 4.8 per cent.

People across Saskatchewan are noticing the extra costs.

“I’m trying to live as cheap as I can right now,” one man said Wednesday. “(I’m) picking up whatever is on sale, for the most part.

“I have definitely started going off-brand instead of name brand.”

Another man 980 CJME spoke with said he doesn’t pay much attention to rising prices, simply because it doesn’t matter to him.

“I just buy the same stuff,” he said. “It’s the cost of living. We need food to survive.

“What are you going to do, right?”

Marge Bells said she has found herself searching for bargains more frequently.

“I am really looking out for sales. As a senior, I don’t know how the younger people make it work these days,” she said.

Bells anticipates prices will keep going up, adding she’s simply buying less as a result.

“I have seen gas this expensive, but never groceries being this expensive,” she said when asked if she had ever seen prices reach these points.

Gasoline prices in Canada were up 31.7 per cent last month compared with January of 2021, as concerns over global oil supplies linked to the threat of Russian military tensions against Ukraine.

Statistics Canada said the annual rate of inflation would have been 4.3 per cent in January without gasoline prices, which the agency noted was the fastest pace it has ever seen on record.

The country’s food inflation rate hit 6.5 per cent, the biggest year-over-year jump in more than a decade.

According to Statistics Canada, the increase in food prices in January outpaced the overall annual inflation rate.

The price of beef rose 13 per cent from a year ago, chicken was up nine per cent and fish increased 7.9 per cent.

The cost of bakery products (7.4 per cent), margarine (16.5 per cent) and condiments, spices and vinegars (12.1 per cent) also increased significantly.

Statistics Canada said supply chain disruptions and unfavourable growing conditions pushed the price of fresh fruit up 8.2 per cent in January from the previous year.

— With files by The Canadian Press