By Robb M. Stewart
OTTAWA--Canada's annual inflation rate continued to decelerate last month, unexpectedly slowing to its slowest pace in eight months as consumers paid less for cellphone services and internet access and grocery cost increases continued to ease.
The country's consumer price index in February rose 2.8% from a year earlier, Statistics Canada said Tuesday. The market was expecting the index to rise 3.1% for the month, according to economists at TD Securities, after cooling to 2.9% in January.
On a month-over-month basis, prices climbed 0.3%, softer than the consensus forecast for an advance of 0.6% in February. On a seasonally adjusted basis, CPI edged up 0.1% from the previous month.
Meanwhile, the average of the Bank of Canada's preferred trimmed mean and weighted median measures for underlying inflation decelerated to 3.15% on-year in February, the lowest since August 2021.
Write to Robb M. Stewart at robb.stewart@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
03-19-24 0850ET
