Inflation on the decline in Canada & BC

Inflation has hit a 14-month low.

A new report from Statistics Canada released Thursday pegs the national inflation rate at 1.0% for January, the lowest it has been since November 2013.

Back in December, the Consumer Prince Index was 1.5%.

Analyst Julia White says the decline in gasoline prices continue to have an effect on inflation.

“Gasoline is by far the largest downward contributor to the CPI in Canada, it’s down 26.9%,” she says. “Fuel, oil and other fuels is also down on the year 21.1%.”

However on the upward side, White says there are several factors keeping the CPI from falling too drastically.

“The top contributing factor is meat, which is up 13.8%,” she says. “Followed by telephone services at 6.7%, natural gas is still up at 13.9%, and food purchased from restaurants is up as well.”

With BC’s CPI falling from 0.9% in December to 0.8% for January, slightly below the national average, White says the province shares a lot of the same factors as the country as a whole.

“Meat, for instance, is up, electricity, food from restaurants, telephone services, fresh fruit and vegetables,” she says. “Gasoline is down as well, 22.2% in BC, it’s a large number but still the smallest decrease among the provinces.”