MNI BRIEF: Canada Factory Prices Surge, Flash Estimates Ending

Canadian factory prices posted the fastest year-over-year gain since 1974 according to the federal statistics office, which also said it's discontinuing flash estimates and instead will start publishing the full data sooner each month.

The industrial price index rose 18% in November from a year earlier, a rise that included a 133% jump in ammonia and chemical fertilizers. Those prices rose 20% at the end of 1974, harkening back to an era of entrenched price gains the Bank of Canada says it wants to head off. Statistics Canada will publish February industrial price data on March 22.

The agency's index of raw material costs also rose 36% in November from a year ago, a bit slower than the October reading.