Analysts had expected annual inflation to rise to 2.9% from 2.8% in February.
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COMMENTARY
DOUG PORTER, CHIEF ECONOMIST, BMO CAPITAL MARKETS
"Not bad. I wouldn't say it's quite as good as the prior two months but still was no worse than expectations. Perhaps most encouraging is we did see some moderation in most of the major measures of core. Having said that, it's not all great news when you see six-tenths rise in a single month."
"I don't think it'll create a big problem for (Bank of Canada). We think that a June rate cut is possible. I still think that's a reasonable expectation."
ANDREW KELVIN, CHIEF CANADA STRATEGIST AT TD SECURITIES
"The Canadian economy continues to make progress on the inflation front, so the question is, is this enough evidence for Bank of Canada to feel comfortable for lowering rates or not. We will get another print on CPI before the next BOC meet, we think the BOC will err on the side of caution right now. We think that it makes sense given how long they have overshot the inflation target to be very sure that they have fully extinguished inflation before lowering rates. But it is certainly consistent with a mid year rate cut."
(Reporting by Divya Rajagopal, Rod Nickel; Editing by Denny Thomas)
