Canada raw-material prices rose 27% over the year as energy led September increase

Statistics Canada’s 22 October release showed the Raw Materials Price Index (RMPI) rose 4.8% in September from August and stood 27.0% above September 2025. The Industrial Product Price Index (IPPI), which tracks prices manufacturers receive at the factory gate, increased 2.0% month over month and 14.5% year over year. These are producer-side indexes, not measures of retail prices paid by households.

Crude energy products were the main source of the RMPI’s monthly increase: the group gained 14.4%, after rising 7.1% in August. Conventional crude oil rose 16.8% during September and synthetic crude oil 9.0%. Excluding crude energy, the RMPI fell 0.4% in the month, showing that the aggregate increase did not extend to every raw-material group.

Energy and petroleum products also led the IPPI’s monthly advance, rising 12.1%. Refined petroleum products rose 13.7%; diesel fuel increased 18.4%, finished motor gasoline 7.8% and light fuel oils 15.4%. Statistics Canada said the resumption of the US–Iran conflict in August continued to contribute to higher energy and petroleum prices in September. That is the agency’s stated explanation, not an estimate of each factor’s separate effect.

Outside energy, chemical and chemical products prices rose 3.8% from August. Petrochemicals increased 9.7%, plastic resins 11.0%, and fertilizers, pesticides and other chemical products 4.1%. On the raw-material side, crop-product prices rose 2.1%, with canola up 3.7%; prices for animals and animal products fell 1.1%, including an 8.8% decline for hogs.

Year-over-year movements were especially pronounced in energy: diesel fuel prices were 106.1% higher than a year earlier, light fuel oils 99.4% higher and finished motor gasoline 45.3% higher. The RMPI’s conventional crude-oil component was up 52.2% year over year, while synthetic crude oil was up 73.2%. Unwrought copper and copper alloys rose 46.3%; gold, silver and platinum-group metal ores and concentrates rose 32.7%.

The indexes are not seasonally adjusted. IPPI measures prices received as products leave factories and excludes taxes and costs after the plant gate, including transport, wholesale and retail costs. RMPI measures prices manufacturers pay to bring raw materials to their establishments, including transport, net taxes and duties. Statistics Canada also began a staged transition to a new sample for the September reference month; all strata are scheduled to transition by December 2026.

The annual comparison also shows how quickly the producer measures have moved: the IPPI had recorded its 24th consecutive year-over-year increase, and the RMPI’s 27.0% annual rise followed a 22.9% increase in August. Those comparisons refer to index movements, not a direct forecast of the next month’s prices. The September release also warns that sample strata are switching in stages, so readers should retain that context when comparing the new sample with earlier observations.