OTTAWA – Canada’s national annual inflation rate was 0.5 per cent in January, Statistics Canada says. The agency also released rates for major cities, but cautioned that figures may fluctuate widely because they are based on small statistical samples (Previous month in brackets):

_ St. John’s, N.L., 0.8 (1.2)

_ Charlottetown-Summerside, 1.2 (1.2)

_ Halifax, 1.4 (1.7)

_ Saint John, N.B., 0.4 (0.7)

_ Quebec, 0.7 (1.6)

_ Montreal, 0.6 (1.4)

_ Ottawa, 0.6 (0.7)

_ Toronto, 0.7 (1.0)

_ Thunder Bay, Ont., 0.3 (0.3)

_ Winnipeg, 1.2 (1.4)

_ Regina, 0.7 (0.9)

_ Saskatoon, 0.3 (0.7)

_ Edmonton, -0.4 (0.2)

_ Calgary, -0.3 (-0.2)

_ Vancouver, 0.5 (0.5)

_ Victoria, 0.1 (0.2)