Canada’s inflation rate continues to pick up its pace, reaches 1.4% in August
OTTAWA — The country’s annual inflation rate continued to accelerate last month with a boost from higher costs for gasoline, hotels and airline tickets.
The new inflation reading Friday of 1.4 per cent brought the data point closer to the Bank of Canada’s ideal target of two per cent and supported the bank’s predictions that recent softness was mostly temporary.
The inflation number crept up from 1.2 per cent in July and a two-year low of just one per cent in June, Statistics Canada said.
Motivated by powerful economic growth in the first half of 2017, the inflation-targeting bank has raised its benchmark interest rate twice since July and many analysts expect it to continue along its hiking path over the next year.