The essence is the expense of Canadian households with the highest increases

Canadian households have seen their spending on goods and services increased almost at the same rate of inflation between 2010 and 2011, except in the case of petrol, a budget item which increased disproportionately compared to the rest.

The published Wednesday by Statistics Canada data show that Canadian households spent an average of $ 55,151 in goods and services in 2011, an increase of 2.7 percent compared to the previous year.

The inflation rate for the same period stood to 2.9 percent.

The three most important positions are housing expenses (27.6 percent), transportation (20.4 percent) and food (14.1 per cent).

Transportation expenditures have increased by an average of 1.5 percent, but this category includes, among others, the purchase and use of personal vehicles, their maintenance, lease costs, insurance, licenses and registration fees, the expenses of transportation and so on.

Looking at the components more closely, however, we find that households spent on average $ 2,606 on gasoline in 2011, an increase of 23.7 percent compared to 2010.

Another expense that is growing rapidly, although much less than gasoline, is that of communications, a $ 1825 was up 5.1 percent. The individual components of this budget item tells us that it is in Alberta with web access found the highest proportion of people at home (87.3 percent). And it is in New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador found the lowest (72.6 percent) proportion.

In opposition, Canadian households spent less for food in 2011, or $ 7,795, which represents a decrease of 0.4 percent compared to 2010. This decrease is attributable to purchased in-store food or fall is 1.8 per cent. Expenditures have decreased especially in the case of fruits, grain products, eggs and dairy products.

By Pierre Saint-Arnaud