Canadian inflation rate jumps to 1.2 per cent
Wednesday, March 27th, 2013The annual inflation rate jumped 0.7 percentage points to 1.2 per cent in February, a bigger increase than economists had expected.
February’s price increases reversed a recent trend that had taken the consumer price index to the lowest level in three years in January.
Gasoline was the biggest inflation driver, with a month-over-month increase of 8.4 per cent.
But most items saw increases, helping lift the Bank of Canada core inflation index to 1.4 per cent, closer to the central bank’s desired setting of two per cent.
Regionally, Statistics Canada says inflation rose at a faster pace in February in all provinces, with Newfoundland and Labrador topping the list at 2.3 per cent.
In a separate release, the agency said average weekly earnings of non-farm payroll employees edged up 0.1 per cent in January and were 2.7 per cent higher than in the same month last year.
Source: MSN Money
