Canada’s annual inflation rate held steady at 3.1 per cent in November, matching the previous month’s rate, according to data released by Statistics Canada on Tuesday.
Economists were expecting the rate to fall below the three per cent threshold, putting the economy closer to the Bank of Canada’s two per cent inflation goal.
Higher prices for travel tours put upward pressure on inflation rates. Slower price growth for food, energy and cell services balanced this out.
While the price of groceries continued to rise, they did so at a slower pace compared to the previous year’s rates for the fifth consecutive month in a row — with a few exceptions, including meat, preserved vegetables and sugar, the agency reported.
If volatile food and energy prices are stripped out from the core inflation number, the consumer price index hovered at 3.5 per cent in November.
The Bank of Canada held interest rates steady this month at five per cent for the fourth month in a row, more than a year and a half after beginning its aggressive campaign to cool the economy.
Last week, the central bank’s governor Tiff Macklem said that it was still too soon for the institution to consider rate cuts.