OTTAWA, June 29 (Xinhua) -- Canada's Industrial Product Price Index (IPPI) rose 1.2 percent in May after four consecutive months of decline, according to Statistics Canada on Monday.
The rise was driven mainly by higher prices for meat, fish and dairy products as well as energy and petroleum products. The IPPI excluding energy and petroleum products was up 0.8 percent.
Meanwhile, prices for raw materials purchased by manufacturers operating in Canada, as measured by the Raw Materials Price Index (RMPI), increased 16.4 percent, mainly on higher crude oil prices.
The May increase in the IPPI was largely attributable to higher prices for meat, fish and dairy products which jumped 8.3 percent.
Energy and petroleum products also drove the IPPI upward in May, with prices increasing 4.6 percent. This gain was led by sharply higher prices for motor gasoline which soared 36.8 percent.
However, in comparison with the same period in 2019, gasoline prices were down 43.6 percent. The monthly increase in gasoline coincided with renewed demand due to the gradual easing of lockdown measures in many countries, and due in part to higher crude oil prices.
Conversely, prices for other refined petroleum products, such as light fuel oils which dropped 10.1 percent and diesel which fell 7.1 percent, continued their downward trend that began in January 2020. Excess supply by refiners adversely affected refining margins for these products, causing prices to fall. Enditem
