Statistics Canada to detail May figure for inflation
Posted Jun 16, 2021 05:00:00 AM.
Last Updated Jun 16, 2021 05:09:08 AM.
OTTAWA — Statistics Canada will say this morning how fast prices rose in May compared with the same month a year earlier amid expectations of a hot inflation figure for the second month in a row.
Last month, the data agency reported that prices increased in April at the fastest annual rate in nearly a decade, fuelled by a record year-over-year rise in gasoline prices and a rebound from rock-bottom prices at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The annual pace of inflation rose to 3.4 per cent in April, up from a 2.2 per cent increase in March.
RBC and CIBC economists each said last week that they expect the headline inflation rate to match the rise seen in April.
The Bank of Canada expects inflation to hover around three per cent over the summer before easing later this year, then returning toward the bank’s two-per-cent target once prices are no longer being compared with their early-pandemic plunge.
The central bank plans to keep its key policy rate at 0.25 per cent until the economy has recovered and inflation is sustainably back on target.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 16, 2021.
The Canadian Press
