Canada's inflation rate cooled to a 1.9 per cent annual rate in August, Statistics Canada says, as the price of gasoline, fresh vegetables and fruit all got cheaper during the month.
August's rate came in 0.1 percentage point below July's level.
After bottoming out at 1.4 per cent in January, Canada's inflation rate has been at 1.9 per cent or above for six months in a row now.
Cheaper gasoline was one of the biggest factors in the cooling, as gasoline was 10 per cent cheaper in August 2019 than it was the same month a year earlier. The impact of that cheaper gas is so great that if gasoline is stripped out of the data, Canada's inflation rate would have been much higher — 2.4 per cent.
Canadians also paid 6.5 per cent less for fresh vegetables in August compared with July, marking the largest month-over-month decline in five years.
The price of a hotel room also fell, as the cost of traveller accommodation has fallen by 6.7 per cent in the past year. Travel...