Bank of Canada
Rates and Statistics
Price indexes
Commodity price index
| Weekly Index | Monthly Index | Annual Index | |||
The new Bank of Canada commodity price index (BCPI) is a chain Fisher price index of the spot or transaction U.S. dollar prices of 24 commodities produced in Canada and sold in world markets, with weights updated on an annual basis. The new Fisher BCPI is also updated using recent commodity production data. The new index, therefore, produces a more accurate and more representative commodity price index.
Expanded BCPI Commodities |
|
Standard Commodities (FWBCPI) |
Expanded commodities (Fisher BCPI) |
Energy |
|
Coal, Oil, Natural Gas |
|
Metals and Minerals |
|
Gold, silver, nickel, copper, aluminum, zinc, potash |
Lead, iron |
Forestry |
|
Pulp, lumber, newsprint |
|
Agriculture |
|
Cattle, hogs, wheat, barley, canola, corn |
Potatoes |
Fisheries |
|
Salmon, lobster, shrimp, crab |
Ocean fish, shellfisha |
a. In the Fisher BCPI, fisheries products are grouped into two categories: ocean fish and shellfish. |
|
Fisher BCPI - Nominal Commodity Shares by Major Group
Note: The weights for the years 2007-10 are based on the 2006 Statistics Canada input-output tables, and are thus fixed over this period.
To calculate the index weights, Statistics Canada’s input-output tables are employed as the primary source of production values. Specifically, Statistics Canada has a data collection system that compiles data from multiple sources, including surveys, other federal departments, and tax records, to produce its input-output tables. The input-output tables are also supplemented with data from other sources. For instance, information on mineral prices and production volumes is used to generate value indexes that are employed to interpolate the value of production in years when input-output data are suppressed. Information on agricultural products is taken from other Statistics Canada data series available on CANSIM. Data for fisheries are obtained from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, while additional data on mineral production are taken from the Canadian Minerals Yearbook (both of these sources are used by the input-output system to calculate commodity production).
The prices for many of the commodities in the index are the averages of daily data. Prices for other commodities are available only on a weekly basis (usually available several weeks after the reference period) or monthly (usually available two months after the reference period). When data for the reference period are not available immediately, the most recent available data are repeated until the actual data are received. The series are revised when the actual data become available.
Recent BCPI data are published in Table H9 of the monthly Bank of Canada Banking and Financial Statistics publication. The weekly series are the averages for the five business days ending with the Wednesday. The monthly series are the averages for all days in the month.