AI Analysis: Wholesale services price index, monthly

Executive Summary

The Wholesale Services Price Index (Statistics Canada, Table 18100277) tracks 110 NAICS industry categories monthly from January 2008 to December 2025, revealing a substantial 58% rise in wholesale prices above the 2020 baseline, with the overall index reaching 158.2 by December 2025. While most categories cluster near the 2020 base of 100, extreme outliers reaching as high as 505.9 indicate that select sectors experienced dramatic price surges, particularly in the post-2020 period. Only 127 statistical outliers (0.6% of 22,608 data points) were detected, suggesting the broader dataset is consistent but punctuated by significant sector-specific shocks tied to events like the 2008 financial crisis and post-pandemic supply chain disruptions.

Key Findings

• The overall Wholesale Trade index rose from a low of 85.4 to a high of 158.2 by December 2025, representing approximately 58% above the 2020 base year (2020=100).
• Across 22,608 valid data points, the mean price index is 107.66 and the median is 101.50, indicating a right-skewed distribution driven by high-value outliers in select NAICS categories.
• The middle 50% of all index values fall within a narrow interquartile range of just 26.1 points (Q1: 91.3, Q3: 117.4), showing that most wholesale sectors remained relatively stable over the 17-year period.
• The full value range spans from 28.5 to 505.9 — a spread of 477.4 points — highlighting that a small number of NAICS categories experienced extreme price volatility relative to the 2020 baseline.
• Only 127 outliers were identified out of 22,608 observations (approximately 0.6%) using a z-score threshold of ±3, with anomalies spread across multiple NAICS sub-categories rather than concentrated in a single sector.
• Correlation analysis across 15 top NAICS categories over 216 monthly periods revealed clusters of strongly correlated sectors, suggesting shared macroeconomic drivers such as energy costs and supply chain pressures simultaneously influence multiple wholesale segments.
• The dataset covers 110 unique NAICS industry categories spanning farm products, food and beverage, apparel, motor vehicles, and machinery, providing a comprehensive national-level view of Canadian wholesale price dynamics over 17 years.