Canada\u2019s inflation rate accelerated to 2.4% in March as a war-driven gasoline shock pushed consumer prices sharply higher, lifting headline CPI from 1.8% in February even as the result still came in below economist expectations for 2.6%.<\/p>\n
On a monthly basis, the consumer price index rose 0.9%, also below the 1.1% median forecast, but still the biggest month-over-month increase in 14 months.<\/p>\n
Statistics Canada said the main driver was energy, especially gasoline. Gasoline prices rose 21.2% from February to March, which the agency called the largest monthly increase on record, and were up 5.9% from a year earlier. Energy prices overall rose 13.1% on the month and 3.9% year over year after falling 9.3% annually in February. <\/p>\n
The year-over-year gasoline figure was held down by a base effect. March 2025 prices still reflected the since-removed consumer carbon levy, making the annual comparison less severe than the month-to-month move suggested. Statistics Canada said that distortion will disappear from the annual comparison starting with April 2026 data, due for release on May 19.<\/p>\n
Transportation costs, the second-largest component of the CPI basket, rose 3.7% from a year earlier and became a major channel through which the gasoline spike flowed into headline inflation. Canada\u2019s inflation profile had otherwise stayed relatively contained for more than a year, hovering near the midpoint of the Bank of Canada\u2019s 1% to 3% target range.<\/p>\n
Prices for food purchased from stores rose 4.4% year over year in March, up from 4.1% in February. Fresh vegetables rose 7.8%, the largest annual increase since August 2023, with Statistics Canada citing tighter supplies and adverse growing conditions in producing countries. Restaurant food inflation, however, cooled sharply to 3.2% from 7.8% a month earlier, reflecting a base effect tied to the end of the temporary GST\/HST break in March 2025.<\/p>\n
Information for this story was found via the sources and companies mentioned. The author has no securities or affiliations related to the organizations discussed. Not a recommendation to buy or sell. Always do additional research and consult a professional before purchasing a security. The author holds no licenses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Canada\u2019s inflation rate accelerated to 2.4% in March as a war-driven gasoline shock pushed consumer prices sharply higher,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11546,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[17,6248,6249,2056],"class_list":{"0":"post-11545","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-canada","9":"tag-canada-cpi","10":"tag-consumer-price-index","11":"tag-inflation"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11545\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}