Canada’s inflation rate is now at 6.9%, down from 7% a month ago

Canada’s official inflation rate declined for the third month in a row in September, as gasoline got cheaper but food prices continued to get more expensive.

Statistics Canada reported Wednesday that the consumer price index declined to 6.9 per cent in September, down from 7 per cent in August. 

The rate peaked at a 40-year high of 8.1 per cent in June.

Economists had been expecting an ever bigger drop off to about 6.7 per cent, but food prices pulled the headline number up.

Food purchased at stores increased at a pace of 11.4 per cent. That’s the fastest pace of increase in grocery bills since August 1981.

More to come.