Canada Inflation Rate (CPI, year over year) and Bank of Canada Policy Rate

What this number is

The year-over-year change in Canada's total Consumer Price Index, not seasonally adjusted, computed from the index Statistics Canada publishes around the third Tuesday of each month at 08:30 Eastern for the month before. This page reads the index through the Bank of Canada's Valet API and computes the annual rate. The Bank of Canada's target for the overnight rate is shown beside it with the date of the decision that set it.

Why it matters

The Bank of Canada targets 2% on this index, the midpoint of a 1% to 3% band, and its eight decisions a year are read against it. The print moves the Canadian dollar, Government of Canada bond yields and the Canadian equity funds US investors hold (EWC); because the two economies are so closely tied, the gap between Canadian and US inflation is most of the story of the exchange rate.

Questions readers ask

Does the Bank of Canada look at this measure?

It targets total CPI but steers by three core measures (CPI-trim, CPI-median and CPI-common) that strip out the most volatile components. Those are in the same Statistics Canada release and in our International desk's coverage of it.

When does the Bank of Canada decide?

Eight fixed dates a year, announced at 09:45 Eastern on a Wednesday, four of them with a Monetary Policy Report. The rate beside the chart carries the date of the last change.

Why is the annual rate computed rather than quoted?

Statistics Canada publishes the index level; the 12-month rate it quotes is the same arithmetic, the current month's index against the same month a year earlier. Rounding can differ by 0.1 point from the headline in the release.