The annual rate of inflation cooled to 5.2 per cent in February, Statistics Canada says, though Canadians continued to feel the pain of surging costs at grocery stores.
The overall annual inflation rate was 5.9 per cent in January; StatCan said February’s CPI drop marks the largest deceleration in headline CPI since April 2020.
The price of food purchased from the grocery store was up 10.6 per cent year-over-year last month, the agency said in its latest Consumer Price Index report released Tuesday.
That’s down from the 11.4 per cent annual increase seen in January. While StatCan noted food prices “remain elevated,” there was some easing in the latest report compared to January.