(CBC) -- Governments keep a close eye on mundane inflation data. But the rising cost of iconic, regional items are often a truer gauge of the actual cost of living.
Services make up 24 per cent of Brazil's benchmark inflation index, and they rose 8.57 per cent in the year up to April -- the fastest pace in 15 years, official data showed this week.
Included in the services category are bikini waxes, the price of which has gone up by 12.4 per cent over that time period, Bloomberg reported Friday.
"Some clients are coming less frequently for haircuts because of the higher price, but not for waxing," Brasilia beauty shop owner Alessandra Rita de Arruda Lopes told the news agency. "Brazilian women might let their hair grow longer, but they'll never stop getting waxed."
More mundane items such as oil changes and car cleaning rose 18.25 per cent during the period, well ahead of the "official" inflation rate.
Regional flavour
Brazil's inclusion of the depilation that bears its name in its official inflation data is hardly a rarity. Even Statistics Canada includes quintessentially Canadian variables in tabulating the country's official Consumer Price Index.
Seasonal items like winter coats, for example, appear in the market place for only a few months of the year, are observed only in the months in which supplies are judged reasonable. But it's undeniable that they're something Canadians have to buy during those months, hence their inclusion.
The agency dispatches an army of data collectors to monitor the prices of everything from newspapers, men's haircuts, winter coats and restaurant meals with in-person visits and telephone surveys throughout the year.
The Bank of Canada pays closer attention to the so-called "core rate" of inflation -- which strips out volatile items like energy and food -- in making its interest rate decisions. But the bank is often criticized for not paying enough attention to the items people actually spend money on in their day to day lives.
In Brazil, that's a bikini wax. In Canada? Maybe something else.
Statistics Canada keeps tabs on ski resorts on an annual basis, for example, and in 2009 (the latest year for which data is available) the industry took in $923 million in gate receipts. That was well under the $997 million figure for 2008.
It was a similar story for golf and country clubs, which saw their gate receipts drop from $2.507 billion to $2.496 billion over the same period.
More everyday items show a similar trend. Citing rising input costs, Iconic coffee and doughnut chain Tim Hortons Inc. raised its coffee prices last month. A medium coffee went from $1.17 to $1.22 at all the chains Ontario locations.
Price changes such as that would not yet be reflected in Statistics Canada's latest data (which came in at 3.3 per cent in the 12 months to March) but the food component as a whole came in at an identical 3.3 per cent gain. The agency is slated to release April data on May 20th.
Prices for fresh vegetables rose 18.6 per cent, as bad weather in Mexico and the southern United States reduced supply. The cost of meat rose five per cent during the month, as beef and pork prices increased. Higher prices were also recorded for bakery and cereal products as well as for dairy products.
The U.S. released its own inflation data on Friday. Energy commodities were 32.8 per cent higher in April compared to the same period a year ago, But unless a 9.2 per cent drop in the costs of personal computer and peripherals counts, the report was devoid of the sort of regional colour included in Brazil's report
Indeed, inflation reports across the globe are specifically tailored to factor items that are locally important. A spike in the price of rice across several Asian countries led to widespread unrest and hoarding by governments in 2008. As recently as last December, there was a run on the food staple of onions in India after food prices spiked by more than 14 per cent in the month.
Reports suggest rising food prices were a key catalyst of the democratic uprisings that rolled over the Arab world this spring.
And there's an old adage that Canada has two seasons: winter and construction. So it's perhaps no surprise that there is indeed a measure of all that roadwork: The Highway Construction Price Indexes.
They track price changes for materials such as pipe and asphalt, collected from provincial highway departments. But sadly, they no longer appear to be a factor in the current data, as the annual tally has been listed as "inactive" since 1993.