Economists expect inflation to ease in September, but remain significantly higher than BoC target

Economists expect inflation will ease for a third straight month in September, but still remain significantly higher than the Bank of Canada’s two per cent target.

The median estimate from economists tracked by Bloomberg is for a 6.8 per cent year-over-year increase to Canada's consumer price index (CPI) during September. In August, Statistics Canada reported inflation rose seven per cent on a year-over-year basis, which was down from 7.6 per cent in July.

“We expect that a CPI to be a little changed in September, and the yearly rate to come down a couple more notches to 6.8 per cent,” said Sal Guatieri, director and senior economist at BMO Capital Markets, over the phone on Tuesday.

“So it would be moving in the right direction, and quite materially down from the four decade high of 8.1 per cent that we saw in June.”