GAS FUELS JANUARY INFLATION

Canada’s annual inflation rate rose to 2.4 per cent in January on higher gasoline prices, Statistics Canada said on Wednesday, with some analysts suggesting the data may pose a challenge for the Bank of Canada should it wish to ease rates. Analysts in a Reuters poll had forecast a rate of 2.3 per cent, up from 2.2 per cent in December. Excluding gasoline prices, the annual inflation rate rose two per cent in January. Increases were partly offset by lower prices for telephone services, internet access, tuition fees and traveller accommodation, the agency said. Canada’s central bank has held its overnight interest rate steady since October 2018 even as several of its counterparts have eased rates, but opened the door in January to a possible rate cut if a slowdown in domestic economic growth dragged on. Money markets see about a 10-per-cent chance of a rate cut in March.