Bank of Canada's Macklem says job not done despite cooler inflation

The Bank of Canada has more work to do in taming stubborn price pressures despite signs headline inflation may have peaked, Governor Tiff Macklem said.

Macklem delivered the hawkish message in a newspaper opinion piece Tuesday afternoon, hours after Statistics Canada reported that consumer price gains slowed to a 7.6 per cent yearly pace in July on a steep drop in gasoline prices. 

Details of the release showed underlying price pressures still building and rippling persistently throughout the economy, which increased market bets of another outsized interest-rate hike from Macklem and his officials next month.

“Tuesday’s inflation number offers a bit of relief, but unfortunately, it will take some time before inflation is back to normal,” the central banker said in the National Post. “We know our job is not done yet -- it won’t be done until inflation gets back to the 2 per cent target.”