Inflation cooled to 2.7% in April as food price growth slowed

Canada's consumer price index cooled to 2.7 per cent in April, down from 2.9 per cent in March, led by the slower growth of food prices, Statistics Canada said Tuesday.

Though food prices still rose in April, they did so at a slower pace of 1.4 per cent compared with 1.9 per cent in March, the data agency said. Price growth for food bought from restaurants also eased.

The cost of meat mostly drove the decline, but other food products that also contributed were non-alcoholic beverages; bakery and cereal products; fruit, fruit preparations and nuts; and fish, seafood and other marine products.

Meanwhile, consumers paid 6.1 per cent more for gas in April after a 4.5 per cent increase in March. Statistics Canada said that a switch to summer petrol blends, supply concerns and higher federal carbon levies contributed to the uptick.

April's figures marked the lowest inflation rate in three years, since March 2021's 2.2 per cent.

Statistics Canada also reported that in Alberta, where inflation has slowed year over year, the cost of rent rose 16.2 per cent in April.

That figure grew at a faster pace than the national rate (8.2 per cent) for the eighth month in a row, amid strong migration from elsewhere in Canada.

Positive sign for central bank, but some economists on the fence

The Bank of Canada's preferred measures of core inflation also eased — a happy sign for the central bank, which will make its next interest rate decision on June 5. Many economists expect that the bank will start cutting rates at that meeting.

«Today's data should have provided the all clear on the inflation front that the Bank of Canada needed to start cutting interest rates in June,» CIBC senior economist Andrew Grantham wrote in a note.

«At the time of the April