OTTAWA, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Canada's annual inflation rate grew by 2.2% in November, unchanged from the previous month, led primarily by an increase in food prices which crossed a two-year peak last month, Statistics Canada said on Monday.
The rise in overall consumer price index, however, was partly offset by annual change in gasoline prices and shelter costs, the statistics agency said.
This was also the first month since March that core measures of inflation, which strips off volatile items, came
below the 3% mark, the upper end of the Bank of Canada's inflation control range.
Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast the annual inflation at 2.3% and on a month on month basis it was estimated to be at 0.1%.
The monthly inflation in November matched analysts estimates and was lower than October's 0.2%, StatsCan said.
The annual inflation rate in Canada has been subdued since April due to removal of a carbon levy on the sale of gasoline. This has kept the price of the fuel low on a year-on-year basis, helping overall inflation.
StatsCan's data showed that the price of gasoline was up 1.8% in November when compared with October, but on an annual basis it was still 7.8% lower, suppressing the overall CPI.
Without the effect of gasoline, the CPI in November rose by 2.6%.
Food prices, however, continued to rise and has been noted by economists as one of the most significant components of inflation which has stayed resilient despite big cuts in interest rates by the central bank.
Food prices overall rose by 4.2% on a yearly basis in November, spurred by a 4.7% rise in grocery prices the price of food purchased from stores and 3.3% rise in food purchased from restaurants.
The last time grocery prices were this high was in December 2023, StatsCan said.
Adverse weather conditions in growing regions and President Donald Trump's tariffs are usually considered to be driving up food prices, StatsCan said.
The BoC's preferred measures of core inflation - CPI-median and CPI-trim — have hovered around 3% since April when Trump's tariffs started to take effect.
But this is the first month since tariffs were imposed that the core measures came below 3%.
CPI-median, the centermost component of the CPI basket, edged down to 2.8% in November from 3% in the prior month. CPI-trim, which excludes the most extreme price changes, was also at 2.8% last month from 3% in October.
(Reporting by Promit Mukherjee; Editing by Dale Smith)
