Canadian Inflation Rate Simmers to 2.2 Percent in April

Canada’s annual inflation rate came in at 2.2 percent in April, a report released by Statistics Canada on Friday (May 19) shows. That’s down from 2.3 percent in March.

Seven of eight major components were on the rise year-on-year, with the only one left out being the recreation, education and reading index, which dropped 0.2 percent.

The biggest upward contributors year-on-year were gasoline (14.2 percent), air transportation (11.9 percent) and restaurant food (4.5 percent), while the biggest drags came from travel tours (9.4 percent), digital devices (6.4 percent) and natural gas (4.6 percent).

Despite the inflation rate’s slight cool off from March, it still managed to float above the Bank of Canada’s ideal 2-percent mark. The news didn’t come as a surprise to analysts, as Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz had previously predicted that inflation would stay above 2 percent for the rest of 2018.

Echoing the lack of surprise was Doug Porter, chief economist at BMO Capital Markets, who told Reuters that the report had nothing particularly shocking in it.

“The CPI was largely as we expected. No big change and no big surprise here. The one thing that is notable is that the annual inflation rate took a small step back even though gasoline prices were fairly robust through the spring,” he said.

“Retail sales on the surface looked better than expected but it was mostly due to autos. There again I think there’s a little less there than meets the eye,” Porter added.

The central bank makes it a point to monitor inflation when evaluating interest rate hikes to keep everything in line. While the bank has raised interest rates three times since last July, it’s considered unlikely that an additional hike will come at the upcoming meeting on May 30.

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Securities Disclosure: I, Olivia Da Silva, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.