Rent and mortgage interest costs continued to be primary drivers of the inflation rate, the agency said. Meanwhile, gas prices ticked up 0.8 per cent in February year-over-year after a four per cent decline in January.
Canadians who signed up for a new cell phone plan in February paid 26.5 per cent less than they would have at the same time last year — this was due to lower prices for new plans and increases in data allowances.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Economists had largely expected the rate to rise to 3.1 per cent and undo some of the year’s early progress.
Rent and mortgage interest costs continued to be primary drivers of the inflation rate, the agency said.
The Bank of Canada’s preferred measure of core inflation, which strips out volatile sectors like food and energy, also fell below economists’ expectations last month — an encouraging sign for the central bank, wrote CIBC economist Katherine Judge.
“This is the second month in a row in which inflation has looked softer than expected, and with ample evidence that higher interest rates are working to tame inflation, the Bank of Canada is on track to start cutting interest rates in June,” Judge wrote.
BMO continues to call for a June start to rate cuts, and this report certainly reinforces our conviction."
For the first time in more than two years, grocery prices increased at a slower pace than the headline inflation rate, StatsCan said.
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