inflation Canada: Latest News

While inflation takes its toll on many households, so does the inherent goodness of some people.

inflation cooled to 4.3 per cent in March, Statistics Canada said Tuesday, even as Canadians homeowners faced ballooning payments on their mortgages.That marks the lowest level for annual inflation since August 2021 and a sharp slowdown from the 5.2 per cent seen in February.Canada’s annual inflation rate has been steadily declining since last summer, as global price pressures ease and high borrowing costs weigh on spending. Read more: Priced out of summer vacation? Here’s how to book ‘budget-conscious’ travel But the rapid rise in the Bank of Canada’s interest rate, designed to cool inflation, has also compounded the pain and driven costs higher for some Canadians.Specifically, mortgage interest costs rose 26.4 per cent in March — the largest yearly increase on record, Statistics Canada noted.Canadians are today renewing their mortgages at much higher rates than a year ago, when the Bank of Canada first started raising its policy rate from the rock-bottom 0.25 per cent.

Canada’s Liberal government is in a tight spot heading into the 2023 federal budget.

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 wording of the Bank of Canada’s new mandate has changed but the substance of it remains essentially the same, several economists say.