Article source: ConstructConnect

There’s much subject matter to be wrestled with in the pool of recent public and private sector data releases, so let’s leave our pina coladas (non-alcoholic, of course) beside our deck chairs and dive right in.

(1) U.S. inflation, at least as measured by the year-over-year change in the Consumer Price Index (CPI-U), eased a little in April. It edged back to +8.3% from +8.5% in March. The ‘core’ rate, which sets aside notably price-volatile items in food and energy, also retreated a bit, to +6.2% y/y from +6.5% y/y in the prior month.

(2) Inflation in Canada moved, to a minor degree, in the other direction, from +6.7% y/y in March to +6.8% y/y in April. Canada’s CPI, excluding food and energy, stayed the same as in the previous month, +4.6% y/y. The Bank of Canada, when it’s assessing inflation, focuses on three specially created measures which it has labeled ‘common’, ‘median’ and ‘trim’. The average for those three indices rose to +4.2% y/y in April from +3.9% y/y in March.
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