Canada CPI: 2026 Schedule, Dates and What to Expect

The Canadian Consumer Price Index (CPI) is the country’s official measure of inflation, published every month by Statistics Canada in its daily release bulletin, The Daily. The next release lands on Monday, September 14, 2026 at 8:30 am ET (1:30 pm London, 5:30 am Vancouver), covering price changes in August 2026. Twelve further dates through August 2027 are listed below, and you can add every one of them to your own diary using the ICS download and Google Calendar feed on this page, so each release appears automatically with the correct time in your local zone.

Canada CPI matters beyond Canada’s borders. It is the number the Bank of Canada watches most closely against its 2% inflation target, it moves the Canadian dollar within seconds, and it feeds into global rate expectations because Canada is a large commodity exporter whose inflation often turns before that of other advanced economies. The most recent reading, for July 2026, showed headline inflation at 3.0% year over year, up from 2.8% in June.

2026 and 2027 schedule

Statistics Canada publishes CPI release dates a year in advance in its official release schedule. Each report covers the previous calendar month, so the September 14, 2026 release contains August 2026 data. All times are 8:30 am Eastern, which is 1:30 pm in London during North American daylight saving time and 1:30 pm in London during standard time only when the UK is also on standard time (the London equivalent shifts to 1:30 pm year-round in practice because both zones change clocks within a few weeks of each other).

Source: Statistics Canada official release schedule. Dates are confirmed by the publisher and very rarely change, though Statistics Canada reserves the right to amend them.

What is Canada CPI?

The Consumer Price Index tracks the cost of a fixed basket of goods and services bought by a typical Canadian household: groceries, rent and mortgage interest, petrol, clothing, restaurant meals, mobile phone plans, air fares, insurance and much else. Statistics Canada prices roughly 700 categories in cities and towns across all ten provinces and the three territorial capitals, then combines them using weights that reflect how much households actually spend on each item. Shelter and food are the two largest blocks, together making up close to half the basket.

The headline number quoted in the media is the year-over-year change: how much prices have risen compared with the same month a year earlier. A reading of 3.0% means the average basket costs 3.0% more than in the same month of 2025. Statistics Canada also publishes a month-over-month change, both unadjusted and seasonally adjusted, which strips out predictable seasonal patterns such as summer travel or winter heating.

Alongside headline CPI come the core inflation measures. Core inflation tries to show the underlying trend by removing or damping down the most volatile prices, chiefly petrol and fresh food, which can swing wildly for reasons that have nothing to do with the domestic economy. The Bank of Canada’s two preferred measures are CPI-trim, which excludes the most extreme price moves at either end of the distribution each month, and CPI-median, which takes the price change sitting in the middle of the basket. In July 2026 those two measures averaged 2.0%, according to TD Economics, well below the 3.0% headline rate, a gap driven mainly by petrol.

CPI is not only a market indicator. It is written into Canadian life: Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security payments, many wage agreements, income tax brackets and Real Return Bonds are all indexed to it. That is why revisions and methodology changes attract scrutiny well beyond trading desks.

How is Canada CPI calculated?

Statistics Canada collects prices through a mix of in-store and online observation, scanner data from retailers, administrative records such as rents and utility tariffs, and web scraping. Prices are gathered throughout the reference month, then aggregated to the 700-plus basket categories, then to eight major components and finally to the all-items index. The reference base is currently 2002 equals 100, so an index level of about 170 points means consumer prices have risen roughly 70% since 2002.

Basket weights are updated regularly using household spending survey data, so the index reflects changing habits rather than a frozen 2002 shopping list. Shelter costs for owner-occupiers are captured through a set of components including mortgage interest cost, homeowners’ replacement cost (a proxy for the depreciation of the structure) and property taxes, which is one reason Canadian shelter inflation behaves differently from the rental-equivalence approach used in the United States.

Headline CPI is not revised once published, which is unusual among major statistics and makes the Canadian series unusually clean for historical comparison. Seasonally adjusted series and some core measures can be revised. Statistics Canada announced that with the January 2026 release, published on February 17, 2026, it adopted an updated revision policy for CPI-trim and CPI-median to bring them into line with international practice, meaning those two core series can now be restated as seasonal factors are re-estimated.

Base-year effects matter for interpretation. Because the annual rate compares this month with the same month a year ago, an unusual price move twelve months earlier can push the current reading up or down even if nothing much is happening now. Statistics Canada flagged exactly this through early 2026 as the temporary GST/HST holiday of December 2024 to February 2025 dropped out of the annual comparison, with March 2026 the final month affected.

What time is Canada CPI released and where?

CPI is released at 8:30 am Eastern time on the scheduled morning: that is 1:30 pm in London, 2:30 pm in Frankfurt and Paris, 5:30 am in Vancouver, and 9:30 am in Newfoundland. During periods when North America is on standard time the London equivalent remains 1:30 pm, because the UK clock change follows within weeks. Asian markets are closed for the evening when Canadian CPI lands, so the initial reaction is concentrated in North American and European hours.

The release appears simultaneously on the Statistics Canada website in The Daily, with full data tables published at the same moment on the agency’s data portal (headline all-items data sit in table 18-10-0004-01, core measures in table 18-10-0256-01). Statistics Canada operates a strict pre-release embargo: no journalist, analyst or government official outside the agency receives the numbers early, and everything goes public at 8:30 am sharp. There is no press conference, so the text of The Daily and the accompanying tables are the entire release.

A useful timing quirk: Canada CPI often lands on the same morning as, or within days of, a Bank of Canada decision, and it always lands after the month’s labour force survey. The Bank of Canada held its policy rate at 2.25% on July 15, 2026 and set September 2, 2026 as the following announcement date, which falls before the September 14 CPI release. That means the August inflation data will be the first major reading policymakers assess ahead of the October 28, 2026 decision and Monetary Policy Report.

Historical data

Recent headline CPI readings, year over year, as published by Statistics Canada:

Source: Statistics Canada, The Daily, monthly Consumer Price Index releases. The Bank of Canada’s preferred core measures have run consistently below the headline through this period, averaging 2.0% in July 2026 against 1.9% in June, according to TD Economics, which is why several Canadian bank economists argued the mid-2026 headline spikes did not require a policy response.

The pattern of the past year is worth understanding before the next release. Headline inflation has been pushed around almost entirely by petrol and travel, while shelter inflation has cooled sharply, reaching 1.3% in July 2026, its slowest since May 2020, as homeowners’ replacement costs fell. Grocery inflation has stayed above the all-items rate for eighteen consecutive months, which is why household perceptions of inflation remain far higher than the headline figure suggests.

How do markets react to Canada CPI?

The fastest reaction is in the Canadian dollar, known as the loonie, and in two-year Government of Canada bond yields. A hotter-than-expected reading typically lifts both, because traders infer that the Bank of Canada will keep rates higher for longer, which makes Canadian assets more attractive to hold. A cooler reading does the opposite. Moves of 0.3% to 0.7% in USD/CAD within minutes are common on a surprise of 0.2 percentage points or more against consensus.

Because the Bank of Canada names CPI-trim and CPI-median as its preferred gauges, the market often trades the core numbers rather than the headline. July 2026 is a good illustration: headline inflation came in at 3.0%, one-tenth above what economists had expected according to National Bank of Canada’s summary of the release, yet core measures stayed near 2%, and CIBC’s Andrew Grantham publicly argued the subdued core readings meant there was no urgency for the Bank to raise rates. Interest rate futures moved far less than the headline miss alone would have implied.

Equities respond more indirectly. The S&P/TSX Composite is heavily weighted towards banks and energy producers, so a CPI report that shifts the expected path of rates moves financials, while the petrol component of the report is itself a reflection of oil prices that drive the energy names. Rate-sensitive sectors, including real estate investment trusts, utilities and telecoms, tend to be the most reactive.

For readers outside Canada, the report is a useful cross-check on global inflation. Canada shares an energy-heavy export base with Norway and Australia, and its housing market is unusually sensitive to short-term interest rates because most Canadian mortgages reset every three to five years rather than being fixed for decades. That makes Canadian CPI and the Bank of Canada’s response an early indicator of how rate changes transmit into consumer spending, a signal watched in London and Frankfurt.

What It Means for Your Money

Inflation data does not change your finances on the day it is published, but it shapes the decisions that do.

• Mortgages. Canadian variable-rate mortgages and lines of credit track the prime rate, which follows the Bank of Canada’s policy rate, currently 2.25%. Persistently high inflation makes cuts less likely and can push fixed mortgage rates up through the bond market, since five-year fixed rates are priced off government bond yields. Cooler inflation works in the opposite direction. UK and European borrowers see the same mechanism at home through their own central banks.
• Savings and cash. What matters is the real return: the interest rate on your savings minus inflation. With inflation near 3% and many Canadian savings accounts paying less than that, cash held in a low-rate account loses purchasing power each month, even though the balance rises.
• Jobs and wages. Employers and unions use CPI as a reference point in pay negotiations. If inflation outpaces your pay rise, your income has fallen in real terms. Sustained high inflation also raises the risk that a central bank keeps policy tight enough to slow hiring.
• Prices you notice. Grocery and petrol inflation dominate how expensive life feels. Both have run well above the headline rate at points over the past two years, which explains the gap between official statistics and household experience.
• Pensions and benefits. Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security payments are indexed to CPI, so the published numbers feed directly into future retirement income. Tax brackets and contribution limits are indexed too.
• Investments. Bonds lose value when inflation surprises to the upside and yields rise; inflation-linked bonds and, over long periods, equities have offered more protection. A single monthly report is rarely a reason to change a long-term plan.
• The loonie, the dollar, the pound and the euro. Inflation surprises move exchange rates, which changes the cost of holidays, imported goods and any investment held in a foreign currency.

Related economic events

• US CPI Report: the American inflation release, usually published a few days before or after the Canadian figure and the single biggest driver of global rate expectations.
• US PCE Report: the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge, a useful comparison with the Bank of Canada’s use of CPI-trim and CPI-median.
• US Jobs Report: monthly American payrolls, which shape North American bond yields and therefore Canadian fixed mortgage pricing.
• US GDP Report: quarterly growth data for Canada’s largest trading partner, where roughly three quarters of Canadian exports are sold.

Frequently Asked Questions

When is the next Canada CPI release?

Monday, September 14, 2026 at 8:30 am ET (1:30 pm London), covering August 2026 prices. The following release is October 19, 2026.

What time is Canada CPI published?

Always 8:30 am Eastern time, which is 1:30 pm in London, 2:30 pm in central Europe and 5:30 am on Canada’s west coast. There is no early access for media or officials.

How often is Canada CPI released?

Monthly, twelve times a year, usually in the middle of the month, covering the previous calendar month. Statistics Canada also publishes an annual review each January.

Where can I find the official Canada CPI release?

In The Daily on the Statistics Canada website, with full tables on the agency’s data portal. The full-year release calendar is published as an official Statistics Canada schedule.

How does Canada CPI affect interest rates?

The Bank of Canada targets 2% inflation and weighs CPI, especially CPI-trim and CPI-median, at each of its eight scheduled decisions a year. It held the policy rate at 2.25% on July 15, 2026, and inflation data is one of the main inputs into whether that hold continues.

Is the consensus forecast for the September 14, 2026 release known?

A consensus forecast has not yet been published. Bank and wire-service surveys for Canadian CPI typically appear in the week before the release, so figures from Reuters and Bloomberg polls should emerge in early September 2026.