27 February 2019

Meanwhile, the following categories reported gains:

• Fresh vegetables – 13.2%
• Mortgage interest costs – 7.8%
• Car insurance premiums – 5.3%
• Food from restaurants – 3.5%
• Rent – 2.2%

Such unstable items as food and energy tend to distort the national numbers, that’s why the central bank often excludes them from calculations when making a rate decision.

It’s what the Bank of Canada pays attention to, and at least one economist now believes the January numbers could make the BoC postpone the next rate increase.

“The weak inflation could make policymakers ask themselves, whether the next rate hike is actually necessary”, – TD Bank economist James Marple noted.