Inflation slowed further in December as Canadian consumers got a tax break from the federal government.
Statistics Canada said Tuesday that the annual pace of inflation cooled to 1.8 per cent last month. That’s down from 1.9 per cent in November.
The December inflation figures capture part of Ottawa’s GST/HST “holiday,” which began Dec. 14.
StatCan said Tuesday that prices of food bought from restaurants and alcoholic beverages — two of the categories excluded from federal tax for two months — saw a major deceleration in the annual and monthly inflation figures. Children’s clothes, toys and other hobby items also saw sizeable annual declines.
Excluding food, the consumer price index rose at a pace of 2.1 per cent, StatCan said.
Gasoline prices were up 3.5 per cent year-over-year, compared to a decline of a half a percentage point in November. The upward swing in December came in part because of a modest annual drop in the same month a year earlier; prices were down 0.4 per cent on a monthly basis.
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Travel services also saw a sharper swing up in December because of steep annual price drops a year earlier.
But prices for traveller accommodation in British Columbia also surged 62 per cent month-to-month, the same month Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour closed out in Vancouver.
“The swift month-over-month increase was the largest on record for any province and coincided with a high-profile concert series,” StatCan said.
The Bank of Canada will be poring over the latest figures ahead of its first interest rate decision of the year, set for Jan. 29.
More to come…
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