Section
Inflation, groceries, energy, and the real purchasing power of a paycheque.
Cost of Living|United States
The Employment Situation for October 2026, released 6 November, shows total nonfarm payroll employment up 165,000 and the unemployment rate at 4.1% (from 4.2% in September). Average hourly earnings rose to $38.00 (+0.4% month-over-month, +3.1% year-over-year). U-6 underemployment rose to 7.9%.
Cost of Living|Canada
Finance tabled the budget on 5 November. Annex 1 projects a $62.3 billion deficit in 2026-27 and $62.5 billion in 2027-28, with the deficit-to-GDP ratio then declining. Day-to-day operating balance turns positive in 2027-28 under the capital-budgeting framework. Public debt charges rise to $85.5 billion by 2030-31.
Cost of Living|European Union
Eurostat's September first estimate puts factory-gate prices up 2.5% from August, with energy up 7.8%. Prices excluding energy increased just 0.1% monthly; household bills are a different measure.
Cost of Living|European Union
Eurostat’s 4 November flash estimate puts euro-area annual HICP at 4.0%, up from 3.8% in September. Energy is expected at 20.8% (18.9% in September); the monthly rate is 0.4%. Full October data are due 18 November. Separately, Statistics Netherlands’ flash puts Dutch CPI at 3.7% and Dutch HICP at 3.3%.
Cost of Living|United States
The Employee Benefits Security Administration’s final rule (91 FR 69092, published today) requires PBMs and affiliated brokers and consultants to disclose their direct and indirect compensation to fiduciaries of self-insured ERISA plans averaging at least 100 participants. Disclosures are due at contracting and every six months, and plans gain annual audit rights. The rule applies to plan years beginning on or after 1 July 2027. Workers do not receive the disclosures themselves.
Cost of Living|European Union
In advice published today, the Raad van State’s Advisory Division says the cabinet’s amendment (‘novelle’) to the Actual Return in Box 3 bill is rushed, creates a temporary hybrid system that would need 252 FTE and about €31 million more to run, and that the Tax Administration itself calls unworkable for 2028. It advises withdrawing the bill and moving to a new system in one step in 2030; the current flat-rate system with rebuttal would continue in 2028 and 2029.
Cost of Living|Canada
The 31 October Canada Gazette proposes a “credit multiplier” under the Clean Fuel Regulations. Low-carbon fuels made in Canada would earn 1.3 to 1.8 times the compliance credits that imports earn. The aim is to protect domestic producers, and canola demand, against U.S. Section 45Z subsidies. Ottawa’s analysis puts fuel suppliers’ avoided compliance costs at $9.1 billion to 2035, at the price of about 2.7 Mt a year in forgone emission cuts. A separate order suspends greenhouse-gas standards for trailers.
Cost of Living|Canada, United States
In a report to the Transport Minister, released 28 October, the Competition Bureau says the airlines’ proposed expanded joint venture would let them coordinate fares on 10 routes where a 2012 consent agreement now bars it. The two airlines carry all non-stop traffic on five of those routes. The Bureau predicts materially higher prices on eight of the 10. Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon makes the final call, and public comments close 15 November.
Cost of Living|Canada
Alberta announced on 30 October that Budget 2027 will replace locally calculated education property tax rates with one provincial rate: $2.65 per $1,000 of assessment for homes and farmland, and $3.98 for non-residential property, locked in every three years. The province estimates owners will save $98.7 million overall in 2027–28. Where the new rate is higher than the current local rate, owners get a one-time transition credit in 2027.
Cost of Living|European Union
Starting tomorrow, the EU charges a non-refundable €2 Union handling fee on each distinct item in e-commerce parcels sent to consumers from outside the EU, whatever the value. The seller or carrier pays it and can pass it on. Ireland’s Revenue gives an example: a €10 parcel holding a pen, a notebook and a key ring now carries €15 in charges, plus VAT.
Cost of Living|Canada
On 28 October the Bank lifted the overnight rate target by a quarter point to 2.5% (Bank Rate 2.75%, deposit rate 2.45%). It now expects CPI inflation to reach about 3½% by year-end and average 3% in 2027, a point higher than in July, and says it “could” need to raise rates again. Next decision: 9 December.
Cost of Living|United States
A proposed rule implementing the Working Families Tax Cut law would stop Exchanges from paying advance premium tax credits while key data mismatches are unresolved, end automatic subsidy re-enrollment (people must confirm their details each year from 1 August) and let consumers ‘pend’ a plan until approved. CMS estimates subsidy spending falls about $7.6 billion a year from plan year 2028. Comments close 27 November.
Cost of Living|Canada
In Régie de l’énergie file R-4333-2026, Hydro-Québec proposes a new Rate CD for data centres with 5 MW or more of authorized demand, priced at about 13 ¢/kWh in 2026 dollars against an estimated 6.82 ¢/kWh under current rates. It says new supply costs 12 ¢/kWh at the margin, against an average of 4.8 ¢. The Régie heard Hydro-Québec’s evidence from 1 to 9 October; intervenors, including Google, are heard in December. No decision yet.
Cost of Living|United States
IR-2026-122 (14 October 2026) says the IRS will not impose section 6715 penalties when dyed diesel is sold for or used on U.S. highways. Relief is retroactive to 1 October and runs to 31 December 2026; federal fuel-tank inspections for on-road dyed fuel are suspended for that window. The agency still says it will issue further guidance on postponing the backup diesel taxes under 26 U.S.C. 7508A — that piece is not in this release. State fuel taxes are unaffected.
Cost of Living|European Union
On 9 October 2026 the European Commission approved two French state-aid schemes under its Middle East crisis framework: €17.2 million for agriculture, fisheries and aquaculture and €23.3 million for transport. Firms whose fuel bill is at least 5% of turnover can borrow €5,000 to €50,000 at a fixed 3.8%, state-guaranteed, for up to three years with a year’s grace on principal. It is French money, not an EU grant.
Cost of Living|United States
On 9 October 2026 the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control issued Russia-related General License 135. It authorizes transactions tied to the sale, delivery, offloading and importation, including into the United States, of diesel fuel of Russian origin that sanctions rules would otherwise bar, until 12:01 a.m. EDT on 7 April 2027. It is a time-limited licence, not a lifting of sanctions: no one was removed from the sanctions list, and Russia’s central bank, sovereign wealth fund and finance ministry remain shut out of U.S. accounts under it.
Cost of Living|Canada
A Parliamentary Budget Officer cost estimate for Bill C-38, published 8 October 2026, puts the cost of suspending federal fuel excise taxes from 20 April 2026 to 31 January 2027, then halving them to 31 March, at $4.943 billion in 2026-27. Average savings are $276 per family, from $132 in the lowest income quintile to $468 in the highest. The House has agreed to sit until midnight on 19 October to deal with C-38.
Cost of Living|Canada
The first opposition day of the fall sitting, 6 October 2026, is a Conservative motion calling on the government to eliminate all taxes on diesel consumption until at least Canada Day, permanently eliminate taxes on diesel production, and fast-track refineries, pipelines and storage. The vote must be held by 5:30 p.m. It is non-binding, and it does not say which taxes it means. Update, 8 October: the House negatived the motion on 7 October, 133–196.
Cost of Living|Canada, United States, European Union, World
On 2 October 2026 G7 leaders agreed a coordinated IEA release of 100 million barrels over four months, with a front-loaded diesel release within 20 days, plus refinery-maintenance coordination and a pledge against energy export bans among members. Canada, a net exporter, has no IEA stockholding obligation and no public emergency oil stocks, so its role is on the refinery and supply side.
Cost of Living|Canada
Wet fields and ~276.7 ¢/L diesel are squeezing Canada’s most expensive crop year for some growers. Grain groups want a temporary per-litre rebate; grocery transmission is the household risk.
Cost of Living|European Union
ASAJA, COAG and UPA say autumn sowings can’t wait — and a key €0.20/L agricultural diesel support expires 30 September.
Cost of Living|European Union
Mediterranean blockades, ~1 in 10 pumps missing fuel, and extended sector aid — while a viral 17 Oct “gilets jaunes” call remains an unverified organiser story.
Cost of Living|European Union
Eurostat HICP has eased, but real wages in several member states remain below pre-pandemic peaks after the 2021–2023 price spike.
Cost of Living|Canada, United States, European Union
Food CPI cooled from peaks, but cumulative price levels remain far above 2019 — and national baskets differ more than politicians admit.
