Grocery inflation finally slips below the headline rate
Statistics Canada's August CPI: groceries rose 2.8% year over year, below the 3.0% headline for the first time since July 2024. What shoppers actually see.
For eighteen months, the grocery bill rose faster than everything else. In August, that streak ended.
Statistics Canada's Consumer Price Index release for August 2026, published on September 14, shows prices for food purchased from stores up 2.8% from a year earlier. The all-items index rose 3.0%. It is the first month since July 2024 that groceries have trailed the headline rate, and the agency gave the moment its own heading: "Grocery price growth falls below headline inflation."
In July the picture was the reverse. Groceries were up 3.1% against a 3.0% headline, which StatCan described as the 18th consecutive month that grocery inflation outpaced the all-items CPI.
Year-over-year % change, not seasonally adjusted. Source: Statistics Canada, Table 18-10-0004-01, vectors v41690973 and v41690975, retrieved September 15, 2026.
What changed in the cart
The slowdown came mostly from the dairy aisle. Dairy prices rose 0.7% year over year in August, down from 3.1% in July, with cheese and yogurt doing most of the work. Smaller increases for fresh or frozen pork (+1.6%), condiments and spices (+0.7%) and fresh fruit (+4.7%) also helped, according to the release.
Not every shelf got the memo. Beef is still the outlier: fresh or frozen beef cost 11.0% more than a year earlier. Confectionery was up 6.5%, coffee 4.4% and fresh vegetables 3.3%. Eggs were one of the few items cheaper than last summer, down 2.4%.
Year-over-year % change, August 2026. Dashed line is the all-items CPI. Source: Statistics Canada, Table 18-10-0004-01; component rates computed from index levels, retrieved September 15, 2026. Dairy, pork and fresh fruit figures as stated in The Daily.
A slower rate is not a lower price. StatCan notes that grocery prices have risen 29.0% since August 2021. August's deceleration means the bill is growing more slowly, not shrinking.
Why the headline held at 3.0%
Gasoline. Pump prices were 22.8% higher than a year earlier, down from 25.7% in July but still elevated with the conflict in the Middle East ongoing. Strip gasoline out and the CPI rose 2.4%, up from 2.2% in July. Rent accelerated to 2.8% from 2.5%, led by Manitoba and Ontario.
The regional spread is wide. Nova Scotia had the highest inflation among the provinces at 5.1%; Ontario the lowest at 2.4%. The Bank of Canada's preferred core measures barely moved: CPI-trim 1.9% and CPI-median 2.0%, both unchanged from July.
The September CPI is due on October 19. Whether groceries stay under the headline rate will depend on beef and coffee as much as on dairy.
Sources
- Statistics Canada, The Daily, Consumer Price Index, August 2026, released September 14, 2026; Table 2, provinces; Table 4, core measures.
- Statistics Canada, The Daily, Consumer Price Index, July 2026, released August 17, 2026.
- Statistics Canada, Table 18-10-0004-01, Consumer Price Index, monthly, not seasonally adjusted, via the Web Data Service. Explore the table on canada.datastam.ai.