Inflation ticked higher in March. Are Bank of Canada rate cuts still in the cards?

globalnews.ca:

Canada’s annual inflation rate rose slightly last month, accelerated largely by higher gas prices, data showed Tuesday.

Statistics Canada reported that the overall inflation rate in the country was 2.9 per cent year-over-year in March, up from 2.8 per cent the previous month.

Despite the rise in the headline figure, the broad-based easing in price pressures and improvement in all of Bank of Canada’s core inflation measures continue to point towards a potential interest cut coming this June, some economists say.

The annual pace of inflation has been hovering just below three per cent so far this year. It cooled to 2.8 per cent in February compared with 2.9 per cent in January, the agency had reported last month.

At the gas pumps, Canadians saw a 4.5 per cent year-over year price jump in March, compared with a 0.8 per cent increase in February.

This was due to higher global crude oil prices arising from supply concerns amid “geopolitical conflict and continued voluntary production cuts,” StatCan said.

Compared with February, gas prices rose by nearly five per cent month-over-month.

Shelter prices, which went up in March at the same annual rate of 6.5 per cent as February, also contributed to overall inflation ticking higher.

Higher rents (8.5 per cent) and mortgage interest cost index (25.4 per cent) pushed the shelter prices up.

The price of clothes and shoes, which saw the two largest declines in January and February since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, rose in March by 1.8 per cent.

Meanwhile, there was continued relief at the grocery aisles, with the price of food purchased from stores increasing year-over-year by 1.9 per cent last month, down from 2.4 per cent in February and from 3.4 per cent in January.

“Acting