Stats Can: Annual inflation rate hits 3.4% in April
Posted May 19, 2021 8:33 am.
Last Updated May 19, 2021 2:22 pm.
Statistics Canada says the consumer price index in April was up 3.4 per cent compared with a year ago when prices plunged due to the pandemic.
The agency says the annual pace of inflation was up from a 2.2 per cent year-over-year increase in the index in March.
In February, the annual pace of inflation ticked slightly higher, largely driven by higher gasoline prices.
The consumer price index for the month was up 1.1 per cent compared with a year earlier, and up from the year-over-year increase of 1.0 per cent recorded in January.
Financial data firm Refinitiv had said the average economist estimate is for a year-over-year increase of 1.3 per cent.
Statistics Canada says driving much of the growth was a five per cent year-over-year increase in gasoline prices, marking the third-straight month of gains.
Statistics Canada says the average of Canada’s three measures for core inflation, which are considered better gauges of underlying price pressures and closely tracked by the Bank of Canada, was 1.73 per cent for February.
The Bank of Canada has warned that annual inflation readings in March and beyond may spike above its two-per-cent comfort zone, but only because the 12-month comparison will be with the worst of the pandemic-induced downturn.
