Inflation in October up 2.4% from a year ago
Posted November 23, 2018 8:37 am.
Last Updated November 23, 2018 9:10 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Canada’s annual inflation rate picked up its pace last month to hit 2.4 per cent in an advance mostly fuelled by higher gasoline prices, compared with a year ago.
Statistics Canada’s October inflation number marked an increase from 2.2 per cent in September and pushed the reading a little farther away from the Bank of Canada’s ideal, two per cent target.
The report says year-over-year prices at the pump were 12 per cent higher in October, air transportation prices were up 9.4 per cent and mortgage interest costs climbed seven per cent.
The average of the agency’s three core inflation readings, which omit more-volatile items like gas prices, edged slightly higher to two per cent last month to hit the Bank of Canada’s bull’s-eye.
The central bank pays close attention to core inflation ahead of its interest-rate decisions — and it can raise its trend-setting rate as a way to keep inflation from rising too high.
Bank of Canada governor Stephen Poloz’s next interest-rate decision is scheduled for Dec. 5.
Economists had expected October’s inflation figure to be 2.2 per cent, according to Thomson Reuters Eikon.
