Inflation rate drops to 1.7% in April, driven by lower energy prices after carbon tax removal
Canada’s inflation rate eased to 1.7 per cent in April, driven by a drop in prices after the federal government removed the consumer carbon tax, according to Statistics Canada.
Still, Bank of Canada’s preferred core measures — which exclude volatility — all rose
Canada’s inflation rate eased to 1.7 per cent in April, driven by a drop in prices after the federal government removed the consumer carbon tax, according to Statistics Canada.
The slowdown came after the inflation rate hit 2.3 per cent in March. Lower crude oil prices were also a factor in the decline, the data agency said.
Despite the decline in headline inflation, core inflation measures all rose in April. The Bank of Canada watches those numbers closely, because they strip out volatile sectors and don’t factor in one-offs like the removal of the carbon tax.
Gas prices dropped 18.1 per cent in April compared to a year earlier, and natural gas prices fell 14.1 per cent during the same period — both big jumps from the previous month as the divisive tax ended, StatsCan noted.
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