Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Jun 21/00) - The Yellowknife May all-items consumer price index jumped two per cent compared to the same month a year earlier, according to Statistics Canada numbers from the NWT Bureau of Statistics.

Behind the jump were higher costs for fuel.

By comparison, the annual price increase was 2.4 per cent for Canada, three per cent for Edmonton and 1.9 per cent for Whitehorse.

The overall price increase in Yellowknife of two per cent between May 1999 and May 2000, can be largely attributed to a 42 per cent hike in fuel oil and other fuel prices, and a 20 per cent increase in gas prices.

The largest contributor in offsetting these annual price increases was a 27 per cent decline in non-alcoholic beverages.

In Yellowknife, prices for consumer goods and services in May were up by four-tenths of a per cent due to higher prices for travel services, fresh or frozen beef, women's clothing, inter-city transportation, purchase and operation of recreational vehicles, cigarettes and recreational equipment and services.

Offsetting price declines -- which helped prevent further increases in the overall all-items index -- were recorded for children's clothing, fresh vegetables, fish, processed meat, personal care supplies and equipment, men's clothing and bakery products.

CPI values for Yellowknife and Whitehorse include estimates of price changes for homes based on the price of rental accommodation.

As a result, the all-items indexes published for these centres are not strictly comparable to those for Canada and Edmonton, Alta.