Canadian consumer price inflation remained the same in the month of December. On a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation remained at 2.2 percent, roughly in line with market expectations of a rise of 2.3 percent. On a sequential basis, inflation came in at 0.4 percent, accelerating a bit from November’s 0.1 percent pace.
Energy prices mainly drove the price growth, with last month’s year-on-year gain flattered by a soft 2018 comparator. Stripping gasoline, inflation came in at 2 percent – the slowest pace since November 2018.
The Bank of Canada’s core inflation measures eased a bit. While CPI-common rose slightly to 2 percent year-on-year from 1.9 percent, CPI-median and CPI-trim both slowed down a bit, to 2.2 percent and 2.1 percent, respectively.
“We continue to look for a slight moderation in the pace of headline inflation as year-ago energy price comparisons normalize, but expect price gains to remain around the 2 percent mark”, said TD Economics in a research report.
